Reviews tagging 'Gore'

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

33 reviews

midwichtriffid's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a book with an interesting premise, complex characters and a world that feels bleak and hopeless. It deals with an incredible number of very dark topics and you should be very aware of any trigger warnings in this book as it does not pull any of its punches. Its hard to say that I enjoyed this book, or even that I am glad that I read it, but it was a book that needed reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Bullying, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Murder, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

alexashabit's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Transphobia, Racism, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Eating disorder, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abortion, Body shaming, Blood, Classism, and Murder

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, Bullying, Transphobia, Death, Lesbophobia, and Police brutality

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Genocide, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Chronic illness, and Confinement

Minor: Dysphoria, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Ableism, Death of parent, Gore, Infertility, Medical trauma, War, Child abuse, and Slavery

solenodon's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual assault, Abortion, Child death, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Colonisation, Medical content, Racism, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Ableism, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Body shaming, Mental illness, Self harm, Transphobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Gore, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Alcohol

jessthanthree's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Mental illness, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Confinement, Classism, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, Violence, Suicide, Slavery, Murder, Physical abuse, Medical content, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape

Moderate: Bullying, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Gore, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Gun violence

Minor: Abortion, Pedophilia, Incest, and Fire/Fire injury

lolajh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A black autistic intersex nonbinary lesbian main character, Aster, in space! Aster’s childhood best friend is Giselle, whose character arc was heartbreaking and traumatic and so raw and real that she and Aster became my favourite characters. Giselle had some minor chapters in her point of view that I wish we got more of because of how interesting of a character she was.

There was also kind of a lead up to what I thought would be a romance or attraction between both Aster and Giselle which didn’t happen, but was understandable due to Giselle’s mental state at the time. Instead Aster romances with Theo, the space ship’s surgeon, who I always saw as more of a parental figure to Aster than a romance, but it developed anyway. Both Theo and Aster are genderqueer; Rivers described online as Aster being nonbinary and Theo a trans woman, which was nice to see and I still very much liked Theo’s character and their experiences and discussions of gender, HOWEVER, there was a sex scene between Aster and Theo in which Aster asks for them to not penetrate her but also not saying what they could do, but Theo goes down on her anyway. So I think there was a mistranslation of proper consent being done here, which is what let down Theo’s character for me, especially after Aster had already had experiences with sexual assault and rape, it really surprised me that Theo would not be so caring and thorough to ask consent of her properly before doing anything. Before that happened as well they do kiss her face and lips without Aster’s consent, dominating over her and overall it seeming like an unbalanced power dynamic that shouldn’t have happened and then Aster continuing to romance them afterwards.

 

Throughout the story Aster uncovers the mysteries of her mother’s death and the blackouts occurring currently on the ship all whilst dealing with trauma and systemic racism and standing up to it more than anyone had done before. Aster is such a strong and admirable character and I loved her progressions of exploring her gender. Will be visiting more of Rivers’ books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Suicide attempt, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Religious bigotry, Torture, Ableism, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Suicide

burnt_milk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Horrifying and incredibly written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gore, Suicide, Self harm, Child death, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Racism, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Abortion, Slavery, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Death, and Colonisation

akblair's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide attempt, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Slavery

blockieran's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

About 40 pages in I was close to quitting because it's very triggering. Fortunately I didn't. The story captured me and wouldn't let me go resulting in two nights spent reading instead of sleeping.

The representation is everything I want in one book. Labels aren't explicitly stated (mostly because they don't exist in this world) but there is a black queer intersex character who seems to be autistic and a trans character with OCD and they own my heart. I want to keep reading forever because it hurts to leave them behind.

Be warned: I thought this was mainly an adventure story with discrimination as a background setting. It's very much in your face though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, and Drug use

carousel's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

An enjoyable read from outside my usual genre. The characters were enjoyable and realistic. My main reason for giving this a 4 is to do with a particular part of Solomon's writing style. There were numerous times where it appears as though a catastrophic and/or big event is happening as a chapter closes, and instead of giving any information about it, faer decides to start the next chapter without a mention of the previous event. This is not inherently bad but is something I personally did not like within the context of this novel.

Overall, I would recommend this book to others and will most likely be picking up Solomon's other books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Blood, and Gore

Minor: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Transphobia