Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

28 reviews

sf_book_cat's review

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challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Amazing book, so creative. Fantastic world-building almost better than anything I’ve ever read before.
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tim_townes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

You better strap in, because this is a truly wild ride. While other authors get the worldbuilding out of the way early, China Miévielle just does. not. stop.

Very minor spoiler to give you an idea:
Halfway through the book, the ambassador of literal hell just casually pops up. And that's just the setup for an even wilder concept.


And I'm all for it. Coupled with a tense thriller plot and a vivid, imaginative cityscape, Perdido Street Station entrances you with its colorful imagery (ha! You'll get the joke once you've read it.) and doesn't let go until the end. If you're willing to roll with the more outlandish concepts, I highly recommend it.
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bennyfelds's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.0

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rartastic's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

This review sums up my feelings pretty well: https://ucsdguardian.org/2015/04/01/fully-booked-china-mievilles-perdido-street-station/

Also a quote from someone else that he tries to give us too much breadth in the book, so he ends up twisting characters into things they wouldn’t normally do. 

I got tired of how gross and dark the city was. There was some deus ex machina toward the end that I found annoying. 

It felt like it was trying to be a new Ankh Morpork/Discworld. But it was way darker and worse. 
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foxmulders's review against another edition

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

2.25

oy vey… this came highly rated and recommended by sff audiences but this was an utter miss for me. i think i would have enjoyed this if we spent more time on the interpersonal lives of lin and isaac and yag. the slake-moth stuff felt like a 400+ page slog through a monster of the week tv show filler episode. the initial story - about forbidden love and an outsider seeking to regain flight - had promise but falls apart entirely in the end chapters. overall disappointing. the treatment of lin in particular felt pointless and unnecessary in its cruelty. 
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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

This is an extraordinary book. I was bowled over when I read it twenty years ago, and it is just as powerful now. It’s about racism and loyalty and a repressive state, and about the resilience of those who are affected. I can’t recommend it highly enough - it’s phenomenal. 
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arken_rose's review

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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sarah984's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense 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

3.5

This book definitely shows its age in some areas (at one point the author uses the word "autistic" in such a strange way that I still have no idea what he was trying to indicate, the plotline that pops up near the end and then immediately peters out also feels very dated) but overall I enjoyed this. The world felt original and the stakes always felt high. The characters were kind of awful but in a way that felt like it was on purpose.
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allegedmusician's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.25

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kaseyd's review

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adventurous emotional tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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