Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller

16 reviews

spaghettii's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

flacabeans's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

3.75

The story is incredibly predictable but it’s mindless enjoyment. The FMC can be quite irritating but luckily the supporting characters make up for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body horror, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, and Lesbophobia

waterbear0821's review

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

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

3.5

I like that the queer horror genre is growing. It’s not my favorite so I can’t claim to be an expert, but I enjoyed this book. It was a pretty quick read and didn’t bore me at any point. I do think it relied just a little too much on cliches and stereotypes, but I get that that’s the style it was going for. Some of the writing was stylish and witty, I liked the descriptions of the environment, but sometimes it was all just a bit much for me. I didn’t love the characters but there was some character development. The reader gets insight into quite a few of the “minor”characters, which I liked. If I have one complaint, it’s that I wish it was more fun. I know it’s horror and people die and that’s inherently not fun, but I know it can be done. There were some attempts any lighthearted or funny moments but it never lifted the book out of the bleak trenches. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: Body shaming, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

poisoned_icecream's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide attempt

fuzzball's review

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Car accident, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Fatphobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Lesbophobia

dogoodwithbooks's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Closed Door Mods: Chapter 1 (some parts), Chapter 12 

For a horror novel, The Z Word is a kind of fun book to read. Adopting the various tropes associated with zombie apocalypses media and infusing her own spins on those tropes, King-Miller writes a darkly funny horror novel about a misfit group trying to save Pride from an sudden outburst of zombies. It’s very easy to picture the different elements of this book, from the various Pride festivities to glimpses into the victims of the zombie outbreak, and I liked how King-Miller used her writing to achieve that goal. There are quite a bit of gore/jump scare moments, but those depictions aren’t excessively graphic (only to the point of what’s needed for this type of story). Fans of Andrew Joseph White will appreciate the thematic elements of LGBTQ+ people fighting back against absolutely horrible circumstances as well as the portrayals of complex and messy queer characters in The Z Word. If you’re looking for a horror novel featuring Sapphic MCs, written with a dark sense of humor, and/or has a found family trope, you should keep your eye out for this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Grief, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Body shaming, Religious bigotry, and Car accident

steph_weigle's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

aseel_reads's review

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.25

This was such a fun plot/premise! I'm impressed with how a whole plot started and finished properly, in less than 300 pages. I loved sunshine, they were such a great character. I do think the characters and their interactions weren't as developed, like we got dumped in their world and there are all these tensions and we just have to role with it. I think because the plot was so fast paced and interesting, it didn't too much, but I think it would have been nice to get to know these characters more 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, and Police brutality

Minor: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

paidays's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Well-executed zombie story that still feels fresh and says ACAB and no corporatization of pride with its full chest. Amen. Gory, but takes the violence seriously on an emotional level, which I always appreciate. Found the “twist” predictable and thought some of the Reveals were overstated, but overall enjoyed the themes of queer solidarity and found family. Sunshine… call me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

just_one_more_paige's review

dark emotional funny reflective 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? No

4.0

 

This book came at me from all sides - an early physical copy from the library and an audiobook ALC from Libro.fm - and honestly this summer has been so much busier than normal (which is to say, way busier than I have wanted it to be), so, a quirky queer zombie novel felt just right. The vibes from the cover and description had me in mind of a B-level horror flick and with that in mind, this novel delivered. 

 

A bit estranged from her family, recently broken up with her ex-girlfriend, and trying to find a new path and community in life after moving to San Lazaro, AZ, Wendy's life is a bit messy. When Pride events that should have been fun, celebratory escapes turn deadly as an infection that is turning people into mindless, violent husks seems to be spreading, Wendy's life gets even messier. What to do? Well, try to stop the zombie outbreak, I suppose. Together with a small group of other queers - "drag queen Logan, silver fox Beau, sword lesbian Aurelia and her wife Sam, mysterious pizza delivery stoner Sunshine, and, oh yeah, Wendy’s ex-girlfriend Leah" - she jumps into tracking the outbreak to its source and trying to save Pride, the community, and their lives.  

 

Oh this was messssssyyyyyyy, in all the ways: relationships, sex, life choices, blood and violence, drama. Big yes. That's what I was looking for. It was absurdist, but in a good way. There was so much gore and body horror and death, and all the apocalypse staples of homemade weapons and souped up cars and chaotic fight scenes. And the pizza van situation gave me real horror-humor s4 Stranger Things vibes and I didn't hate that at all. I also enjoyed, and got similar vibes from, the everyday things that still happened/needed to happen during a zombie apocalypse (like getting Plan B and making coffee). It was just wild the way that things ended up so out of control, and fairly quickly, and like, not a single single character acted more surprised by the descent into chaos and violence from regular people/people they know, definitely played into those absurdist vibes. I feel like IRL, I (or just people in general) would step back and be like, "this is abnormal and wtf is going on?!" much sooner. Then again, the world is kind of falling to pieces, so maybe not... 

 

Outside of the spot on horror-humor vibes, the plot was simple but held up. I guessed pretty early what the source of the outbreak was, but even with that it was entertaining to read through the "how" and "why" of it. Really, a solid, if ridiculous, commentary on capitalism and corporate greed and the blinders that those who have high ambitions can have. There were some basic, convenient aspects to the wrap up, but it was smooth, so it felt alright. And I actually did really appreciate the open-endedness of the ending (there is no way something this messy gets wrapped up quick and easy). That, and the fact that the author honestly acknowledged on-page that there wasn’t time to process the trauma, because it kept happening, were both well done and necessary for me to swallow the story (even bizarre as it was). I also want to mention the interesting, kind of off-the-wall, but also weirdly serious, moral questions about killing zombies, especially knowing there’s an antidote (while killing zombies). It presented a sort of ludicrous morality that really fit the vibe and also actually felt like it carried a real message. An unexpected and pleasant surprise.  

 

Overall, the dramatics of this novel were perfect. It was such a funny, weird, entertaining, offbeat, queer, character-driven, zombie-horror story.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia and Grief