Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

As Old as Time by Liz Braswell

12 reviews

sar_lion's review

adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Quite dark overall, but very well written with lots of changes to the Disney movie. But all good changes, in the long run. The characters already mean so much that I already felt connected to them from the jump. The additions were very interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexism and Racial slurs

Minor: Suicide and Sexual harassment

lauraeduncan's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Body horror

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Murder, Gore, Violence, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization

vixenreader's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

The ending is a bit of a bummer, it still has a lot of creativity, and it addresses the hiccups in a more fascinating fashion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Colonisation, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Medical trauma, Grief, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Abandonment

Minor: Gore, Alcohol, and Sexism

There are discussions of discrimination, segregation, and immigrating outside of a land because of fear for one’s own livelihood.

alexinitalics's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I definitely enjoyed this book, personally I was a very big fan of the flash back sections in the first half of the book, especially as the rest was basically just retelling the movie exactly. The second half focuses more on the "twisted tales" idea, continuing the timeline of the movie after a major change. It has a lot of clever ideas that it explored well, although I found it a little inconsistent. The villain was a good twist on the original story and I didn't see it coming. However I think it was also a little affected by the pacing as I felt there were two many reveals in a short space of time. I've seen a lot of people complain about Belle's characterisation but I personally didn't find this. I did think the beast's character was well written and the new characters were interesting to read about.
Overall, I definitely recommend this book for Disney/beauty and the beast/twisted tales fans but it's not one of my favourites from the series

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Torture, and Genocide

Minor: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Body horror, Death of parent, and Forced institutionalization

amarti727's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Medical trauma, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

meganpbennett's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I've been a Beauty and the Beast fan for years. I think I wore out a VHS tape of the Disney version, and oh, that library! So when I learned that there was a "twisted tale" version, I quickly added it to my TBR list. 

It's an interesting "what if?" and it relies very heavily on the reader's knowledge of the Disney version of the tale, which is far far older than even the Perrault version. This reliance on the reader's knowledge is a drawback, as someone who is casually aware of the story would not be able to understand what is going on in this version, or be able to read other of these "twisted tales" without a thorough understanding of the Disney version of the story. 

 On to the story. The first half plays out almost exactly like the Disney movie, though with a lot of backstory about Belle's mother. The chapters alternate between Belle and Maurice in the present time, and Maurice and Belle's mother in the past, with nothing to differentiate the time periods, which is a major drawback, and I almost stopped reading when I couldn't figure out *when* the chapter was taking place. The book goes into detail about what the kingdom was like before the prince was cursed, but more specifically, *why* the enchantress felt it necessary to curse the Prince. Very interesting. 

The story got much more interesting and intense when Belle finds the rose. As the daughter of the enchantress who set the spell, Belle's accidental touch destroys the rose, dooming the Beast and everyone who was caught in the spell to a life of being enchanted household items. The next sections detail their attempts to research how the curse came into being, who placed the curse and why, and how to break it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Murder, Death, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Gore, Torture, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Racism, and Blood

maymoo's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Very fun to read would recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

Does romantic stockhomesyndrome.

aurora_earlgrey_books's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

As a huge Disney fan I love these books. But iv'e never like the Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin movies. They seemed cliche and boring. But reading this book brought new light to the story and now I enjoy the movie. I love seeing the twists and turns and new character development. You grow to love the characters that didn't really play a large part in the movie who now have new life in the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Murder, Death, Gore, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment and Blood

Though these are mentioned in the book I would say it is still appropriate as a YA novel.

laurelconover's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

I wasn't expecting this story to be as complex (in a good way!) As it was but there was adventure, mystery, intrigue, an interesting twist on a Disney tale with a surprisingly dark underbelly that felt like a full and well done story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

there is somewhat graphic depictions of violence and torture towards the late middle/end of the book to be aware of

rubydagger's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Medical trauma

Minor: Death of parent, Sexism, and Sexual harassment