Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller

14 reviews

missladysky's review

dark emotional funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Alcohol

vixenreader's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

Although I’m still mad at Leah, and the ending is open-ended, this book is filled with realistic, loveable characters, great gore, great action, and a message of fighting for your community. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, War, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, and Abortion

Be aware that this book deals with estranged relationships between ex-partners, plots to destroy community, attacks targets at the LGBTQ+ community, broken condoms, refusing medical services due to religious beliefs, corporate & political corruption, fear of unwanted pregnancy, selling out, explosions caused by fireworks, and zombies.

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

sommermeyer27's review

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Self harm and Suicide

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

britnygottalent's review

medium-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? It's complicated

1.0

I’m not usually one to publish a negative book review. Books are hugely subjective, even more so than other media, and it rarely serves anyone to trash an author’s work. 

But this was one of the worst books I’ve ever read, and in this case, I feel a duty to protect others. 

The premise is great! Some of the things it’s trying to do are compelling! But from the moment a character was described as “a lushly proportioned woman with … tits and belly and thighs to spare” (page 5) to when I predicted the story’s Big Twist (page 11), I knew it was awful. I only kept reading to give it the benefit of the doubt, and I kept doing that until it was too late to quit. 

It is, at least, short. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

the_vegan_bookworm's review

adventurous dark funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

A dark comedy slash horror featuring a full cast of messy queers. I really enjoyed this satirical horror about the commercialization of pride.

My main critique is that the messaging around police abolition was strong at parts and weaker at others, and the role of race in the message around saviorism could have been tightened up. With this being said, I thought it was compelling and addressed many of the challenges of queer community today. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia and Toxic relationship

Minor: Pregnancy

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

llams's review

dark mysterious medium-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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jjyork's review against another edition

dark funny sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide attempt