Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne

46 reviews

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is one of those books where we follow unlikeable characters all the way through. Once I accepted that, I was able to dive deeper into the story and it became more enjoyable. We follow Anna as she embarks on a vacation in the Italian countryside with her truly awful family. Many times I questioned why she was even there in the first place! 

Nevertheless, she remains in the vacation, trying to follow her older sister's strict schedule and focusing on her nieces. As the vacation starts and continues it becomes clear that there's more to this villa than what was advertised in the website. 

I liked that Anna was unapologetically herself throughout, even though she did bite her tongue a lot of the time around her family. She's already seen as weird and an outsider by them so it seems like she doesn't want to give them more reasons to cast her out. 

The part that I wasn't satisfied with was the Italian context. I felt like there could have been more about the community but they mostly remained in the shadows, putting the American tourists at the forefront. All of them mostly want nothing to do with them (for good reason), but I needed just a bit more from their perspective, maybe one or two chapters from their point of view would have sealed it for me as a solid 4 stars. 

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Creepy!  Main character is super flawed but I love her.  I washed to slap everyone in her family other than the nieces.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Holy shit this was so good! A definite contender for my favourite read of the year, it's dark, funny, very queer, thrilling, had some tasteful gore and grossness, and did something I don't see often in the haunted house trope
by taking the ghost out of the house and haunting the MC instead!
none of my predictions came true.

It took me so long to finish this book because I didn't want it to end. I was a little confused about where it was going in the penultimate chapter but it pulled me back in as I kept reading. 

The relationship between La Dama and Anna definitely has the flags of DA so take care if you're sensitive to that.

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Not the usual horror story, although it covers everything you expect from a good ghost story. But it is also a story about a very dysfunctional family and the kind of ghosts you carry with you, if you are considered to be the 'black sheep' amongst an awful bunch of people. 

It took me a while to get into the second part of the book, after the story takes an unexpected turn. Although it was still interesting, for me it was the weaker part of the novel and made the end more forseeable, than I was hoping for it to be, after the first part.

Still an enjoyable, entertaining, well written story, which let me easily overlook some small plot holes and less convincing situations in some parts, because I had enough fun reading it overall. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

3.8 (cause I was expect a horror but got a drama with horror elements)

I found myself rooting for Anna, it feels like the haunted nature of the book is a direct reflection on the main character. - I honestly didn’t get that till the last 20% of the book which I thought was super neat.

I felt for Anna, being stuck with these ppl as family would drive anyone to be an emotional unavailable person. If you are told you are the problem your whole life it does something to you. 

This book will not be for everyone, especially people that are very close to their families. 

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