Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

43 reviews

insomniacsun's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Thank you. I love you. I’m sorry. Thank you. I love you.
I’m sorry. For the things that still need to be written out.

Premetto che sono una mezza cartuccia quando si tratta di horror, ma se si parla di libri incentrati sul lutto, devo esserci. 

Sono molto contenta nel vedere che l'autore ha sfoggiato il meglio della sua prosa nelle descrizioni del lutto che invade la vita di Thiago, e non mi sorprende il fatto che questo libro sia nato dall'elaborazione di una sua perdita. 
I primi capitoli ambientati al funerale della moglie sono sicuramente la parte migliore del libro: per quanto l'elemento horror che ha seguito mi abbia raggelato il sangue nelle vene, quei passaggi mi hanno sviscerato come nessun demonio potrà mai fare. Kudos.

People cannot bear to think there are channels of human experience that are closed off to them, that they’ll never know. People want to believe their experience is universal, that nothing’s outside their scope.

Onestamente, dopo aver letto la trama, mi aspettavo un libro molto più incentrato sull'assistente Itza (stile AI che prende coscienza) invece è decisamente a tema sovrannaturale, che ho comunque apprezzato. L'autore ha gestito meravigliosamente la tensione e la confusione del protagonista di fronte a situazioni surreali, specialmente nel secondo arc.

Al momento sto ancora rimuginando sul finale, che mi ha lasciato un po' perplessa, e questo mi blocca dal dare 5 stelle al libro. Probabilmente rileggerò il libro per avere una visione più ampia fin dal principio. Alla fine, il fascino di un finale aperto come questo sta anche nel godersi una nuova esperienza con ogni rilettura. So che ci rifletterò su a lungo.

Penso che avrebbe funzionato meglio come finale aperto se ci fossero stati più riferimenti e approfondimenti su questo fatidico "banchetto". Sicuramente non è un lieto fine, e penso che decidendo di farla finita abbia preso posto alla tavolata, ma non capisco come questa maledizione sia partita. Però il passaggio alla terza persona, prima con la fotocamera nel sogno, e infine con il cambio di pronomi, è stato un colpo d'effetto. The Cook ha sicuramente avuto il sopravvento ben prima che Thiago si suicidasse e il colpo di grazia, a mio parere, l'ha dato la conversazione con Esteban.

Comunque sia, Moreno mi ha stregato con questo debutto, per cui il suo nome è uno che terrò sicuramente a mente, aspettando di leggere altri suoi libri.
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EDIT: portato su a 4.5 perchè non riesco a smettere di pensarci su. Tra svariate interpretazioni sulla natura di certi avvenimenti, e la validità di tutte loro, mi sento in obbligo di dover lodare un libro del genere. Riflettere sugli intrighi di questa storia ormai è parte della mia routine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Blood, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Body horror, and Gore

icebearg's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I picked up this book because I was looking for a supernatural horror and even though it wasn't as terrifying as I hoped it would be, I liked the story more than I thought I would. What impressed me were the realistic thoughts and emotions the protagonist went through in his grief, like a real account of someone going through the pain of losing a loved one. The "ghost" acted as a symbol to further illustrate the image of grief.
I highly recommend This Thing Between Us to anyone who has or is currently navigating through their grief because its commentaries on death and the story's main allegory of grief are deeply validating and relatable. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

kirahaycock21's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

This book was actually super well written. I literally couldn’t put it down- I read it in one sitting. It was confusing though, but I think that was deliberate on the authors part. There was a lot of symbolism, and it could be interpreted a lot of different ways. But I loved the simple writing style and the way it addressed the feelings behind losing a loved one. Some parts of it were genuinely scary too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Cursing, Gore, Animal death, Body horror, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Deportation, Death of parent, Hate crime, and Cancer

Minor: Rape, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Vomit

ghast's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Car accident, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Child abuse and Vomit

killmoore_'s review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense

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

4.5

I finished this, looked at my husband and said "I can't wait to read this again".

This Thing Between Us gutted me. It is a horrific and heartbreaking take on the process of grief, and the isolation and guilt that so often follows losing someone we love in a way that we have convinced ourselves was preventable. 

I loved the small reveal regarding the format of our story, and honestly the jumbled, erratic time line did it for me here - it was written as a memory and clearly comes across as such. The body horror is graphic, the imagery is beautiful, and the portrayal of grief is so spot on that I reached out to hold my partners hand multiple times throughout. 

I was slightly disappointed that we didn't delve deeper into the "haunted itza" story line, and the reason behind the haunting itself fell a bit flat for me, which is why this isn't a 5 star read for me. However, I'm not disappointed, and I look forward to picking this up for a second time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Self harm, Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Animal death, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

jkar7's review against another edition

I got to 75% and it was decent. Then I started just skimming and quit at 81%. Some people may enjoy books like this, but don't. 
What really grabbed my attention was how grief was described. I found it to be quite accurate and I connect that part. And then the book fell off a cliff and it was too ridiculous to continue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Stalking, Vomit, Racism, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

mlewis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Grief, Suicide attempt, Violence, Xenophobia, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical content, and Alcohol

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Miscarriage

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

I liked this! The ending was predictably unsatisfying but I think that’s what makes it good horror!

Thiago was in turns pathetic and frightening and saddening and my god does that cook give me the willies. 

In the best of ways, this reminded me of SGJ, and Neil Gaiman specifically in OATEOTL and American Gods

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Alcohol, Murder, Violence, Medical content, Death, Car accident, Racism, Xenophobia, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, and Deportation

bitchigo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Body horror, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

amirahazhar's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

This was really something. Engrossing, eerie and unsettling. The synopsis makes it look like Itza, an Alexa-like device is the one behind all these hauntings, but it's much deeper than that. I really wouldn't want to spoil anything, and seriously it's a book that you have to pick up and see for yourself because a summary won't do it any justice. 

Having said that, I was so gripped by the storyline but I felt like the ending was an easy cop-out. All those hauntings and occurrences building up to what? I really wanted there to be some sort of big, fucked up reveal. It is a fucked up cosmic horror, after all. I hate having to interpret an ending and then reading a reddit thread, and some dude says something along the lines of, "maybe he's so grief-stricken that he can't be a reliable narrator, etc". I hope to God that that's not at all what the author was trying to convey, because if it's meant to be interpreted as something that only the protagonist goes through just because he's grieving then why make it a horror in the first place? 

But I digress. Should you read this book? A hundred times, yes. It's really something different and refreshing. It's a great book, even. Just don't put too much of your hopes on the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Body horror, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Gore