Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Awakening by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

4 reviews

faduma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Bullying, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, Drug abuse, Torture, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual violence

midnacine's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed this! The story was interesting and engaging, the world building was pretty intense and unique, and the little bit of spice was enticing.
But goddamn, getting past the poor writing was a struggle. About 100 pages in, the only way for me to continue was to start annotating just so I could edit as I read. I restructured sentences, corrected grammar and spelling, and added punctuation where necessary. It honestly felt like no one but the authors read through the book before sending it out to print. And don't even get me started on the fact that Tory and Darcy- two 18-year-old girls who were supposed to have grown up in the US- used terms like "sports kit" and "postie", which are very British terms.
But again, I enjoyed it. So am I gonna read the rest of the series, no matter how infuriating it is? Absolutely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Torture, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Incest, Vomit, and Medical content

zabeishumanish's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

I totally understand why this series is so popular. Tory and Darcy are super compelling characters and the world-building here is insanely complex yet still comprehensible.  Bully romances are really not my thing and all of the magical aspects incorporated into the bullying made the story a bit too intense for my taste.  If you're a fan of bully romance though this probably won't bother you. 

The story isn't a romance, despite romantic elements (bully romance specifically), the book ends on a cliffhanger with no happy relationships in the book.

There are a ton of consent issues in this book. While none of those issues are around sex, the twins have no bodily autonomy whenever a vampire decides to feed on them and no mental autonomy in terms of the coercion magic, and emotional manipulation from the sirens.  These consent issues being brushed off as part of the fae power structure makes sense in the world-building but has the potential to be more triggering than direct violation of sexual consent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gore, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Body horror, and Bullying

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content