Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Rosalera by Tade Thompson

28 reviews

librarianmage's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Torture and Blood

Minor: Homophobia

mar's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

really cool take on alien invasion/first contact! BIG fan the whole "telepathy" thing - telepathy is such a bizarrely common landmark of classic science fiction, and i loved seeing this book build on that legacy while actually adding a "science" aspect to it. kaaro's constant objectification of women was fucking exhausting tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Body horror, Child death, Homophobia, and Torture

Minor: Islamophobia, Rape, and Sexual harassment

oceanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

1.0

This was an experimental read for me as part of a reading challenge. The summary sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, this just wasn't my forte. I'm used to non-linear timelines in historical fiction but I guess I have difficulty following along with sci-fi. I started off listening to this as an audiobook but switched to the ebook about a quarter of the way in but it didn't help much. Another reason I struggled through it was the excessive swearing. It was distracting. I'm glad I tried it as the plot was interesting at its core, but between some of the subject matters and politics, it's not something I personally enjoyed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, and Body horror

Moderate: Medical content, Torture, and Death

emilycombs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Rosewater has a bit of a slow start, but it was intriguing from the beginning nonetheless—and all the build-up was definitely necessary to provide a framework before getting into the real action and mysterious twists and turns. It's a good mix of horror, sci-fi/fantasy, and epic story elements and it absolutely kept me hooked until the end. I'm looking forward to finishing out the trilogy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child death, and Vomit

Moderate: Violence and Body horror

Minor: Sexism, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

mysterious slow-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

4.0

The world building is excellent. I liked the shared mindspace created by alien fungus and enjoyed the book being set in Nigeria. The plot lost me a few times, but that's mostly because it was hard following the time jumps (between audio and the way I tend to process information). The side characters needed more characterization. I kept forgetting which woman was which. I did enjoy when one character told Kaaro that a woman in his life wasn’t a side character in his story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Medical content, Gun violence, Sexism, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, and Confinement

bookishplantmom's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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

4.0

This was a fascinating book. We follow Kaaro an agent for S45 an organization with dubious goals which he is entangled with almost against his will, though I would almost argue Kaaro has no real will to speak of… he kind of goes where the wind takes him in many ways.  This character is a hooligan and I did not care for him. This was not however a negative. I don’t believe the author intends for us to root for Kaaro necessarily, he seems to be more of a vessel for us to carried through the story. 

The author’s writing style is captivating. It forces the reader the wrestle with the story as it refuses access to itself. The structure of the book is fragmented and nonlinear.  I found the pacing difficult because of the fragmented nature of the plot but I was enraptured by the world building and wanted more of it all the time. The biology of the world is amazing and I look forward to to seeing more of it in the rest of the series! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Body horror, Medical content, Gore, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Rape

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Drug use, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Grief, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Murder, Police brutality, Violence, Torture, War, Body horror, Excrement, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Classism, Blood, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders

edensbookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Body horror, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Gore

Moderate: Gun violence and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia and Sexism

goosegrimm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

3.5

Rosewater is an interesting book. I'm not quite sure its my cup of tea however. I very much enjoyed Thompson's voice and his attention to detail in the setting. His prose is beautiful and really draws you in. However, the narrative is very disjointed and while that serves the overall story quite well, I had difficulty following even with the chapter headings. My suspension of disbelief was also occasionally broken both by the timeline changes and some of the plot points. Overall if you would like a genuinely fascinating sci-fi world to explore, this is a great fit. Just be warned that it can occasionally be difficult to follow despite how beautifully written it is. I am excited to read further works both in the Wormwood trilogy and by Thompson. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Body horror, Sexual content, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Torture, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Minor: Classism, Homophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

 2 🌟 CW: violence, murder, mob violence/lynching, sex, zombies, descriptions of blood and corpses, medical/body horror, ethnic cleansing mention, cannibalism mention, grotesque descriptions of mutated bodies, torture

I Initially bought Rosewater by Tade Thompson, because it's a scifi novel by a Nigerian author, but upon reading I was very disappointed.

We follow Kaaro, a Yoruba man in Nigeria in 2066, who works for a secret government agency called S45 (reminds me of Section 31 in Star Trek.) Kaara lives in Rosewater, a town that didn't exist until 11 years ago when extraterrestrial life crashed to earth and released viruses called Xenoforms. The xenoforms that were released by the alien had different effects on people. In Kaaro's case he became a psychic they call a Sensitive. It sort of reminded me of the show Sense8, but instead of a specific cohort, you can read all people.

I did not enjoy this book. I struggled to get through and seriously thought about dnfing it several times, but powered through anyway. I found the MC to be a misogynistic asshole, and didn't really have any redeeming qualities. I thought the going back and forth in time was a weird choice, since the flashbacks were all out of order, which made it a bit hard to follow.

I felt like the author didn't know which plot points to follow, so he just threw them all at you. There was even a zombie plot at one point. I wasn't quite sure what the point of Oyin Da's character was since it didn't seem to really go anywhere. There was also a weird sex thing happening that I thought was unnecessary.

This was very high concept scifi, and the author is clearly very smart and a talented writer, this story just wasn't for me. I will not be reading the rest of the Wormwood trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Medical trauma, Torture, and Sexual content

Minor: Genocide and Cannibalism

violent, but consensual (although questionable) sexual situations, grotesque descriptions of mutated bodies