Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Bestiary, by K-Ming Chang

15 reviews

brianareads's review

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Gore, Excrement, and Body horror

readingjaunt's review

5.0

I’ve never read a book with so much pissing in it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Animal death, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Excrement, Sexual assault, War, Domestic abuse, Gore, Blood, and Violence

maksipad's review

challenging emotional slow-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

3.75

I like weird books and this fits in that category for sure. The prose was absolutely beautiful and I really loved the story. However, it was also fairly slow and I could only read small chunks of the book before I had to put it back down for awhile. Also, as others have mentioned, there are manyyy bodily function references.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Abandonment, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Dementia, and Gun violence

Moderate: Gore, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/injury detail

nixusiai's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

a beautifully written book on intergenerational trauma, and the way it cycles until someone makes an effort to break it! it also features a lot on what it's like to leave your home for the colonised countries, the beastification of people of colour, and how this effects all of the family well down the line. 

i absolutely adored the way k-ming chang wrote and formatted this. the juxtaposition of the almost flower prose versus the language used is just stunning!! loved the relationship between daughter and ben, too.

the final two chapters made it fall from a high 4☆ but i have a feeling that's mostly because it began to lean into the poetic & magical side and i didn't fully understand.

really recommend though! beautiful, especially for a debut!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Child abuse

Minor: Animal death, Blood, and Colonisation

caleykapowski's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Excrement, and Violence

snowwhitehatesapples's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

 Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.

Brimming with imagery and symbolism, vulgarity and rawness, Bestiary by K-Ming Chang is a familiar story of alienation, resilience and survival told in (while being made unfamiliar by) bizarre prose saturated with magical realism. There are layers upon layers in this story, made complex by two main factors.

The first of which is that there is no traditional plot structure as the story unravels without linearity. It jumps from one point of view to another, switching between Daughter, Mother and Grandmother without much care for order. But, despite this, it is clear that Bestiary is a story of identity, though there’s a notable lack of names.

The other is the significance of vulgarity in this book. Now, I’m not someone who shies away from vulgarity in literature, but there is just way too much of it here. The first half of the book is especially bursting with mentions of body parts and bodily functions. A small part of me hesitantly believes that the closeness of filth and the Asian characters here are meant to be ironic because Asians have been stereotyped as dirty. But, a greater part of me is unsure of their significance within the story and outside of it—the potential contexts elude me despite the familiarity.

Everything considered, this book was difficult for me to read and took a lot out of me while I attempted to understand it. It is powerful, yes, and the parts I did understand broke my heart. Even so, I remain undecided if Bestiary is brilliantly creative or has a tad too much surrealism.

Nevertheless, I recommend this book for anyone who loves Asian literature and magical realism, and who has the brain power to process its rich imagery and symbolism. If you get squeamish easily but really want to read this book, be prepared to take lots of breaks in between pages.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Dysphoria, and Excrement

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Minor: Racism and Suicide attempt

abithereader's review against another edition

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Pregnancy, Body horror, Blood, and Excrement

svmreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Emotional abuse, Injury/injury detail, Gun violence, War, and Dementia

stevie's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, War, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Racism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Misogyny

juliej0715's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was so interesting and different for me. Everything is fantastical.
The beginning really hooks you in. Then the writing style takes some getting used to. Probably the middle 30-45% was kinda tough to follow, because you can't tell if what she is describing is actually happening or not? But then you get in a groove with the style and you understand what's happening. Once you get into the main plot, it's so consuming. The stories really feed your imagination with bold imagery and it becomes really poetic and beautiful.

Not to be too punny with the front cover, but this book is w i l d. It was crazy and fun and enjoyable and you can't put it down. It's different and I would recommend it!

And the day after I finished it, I was thinking about it so much that I read the ending again. I considered reading the whole thing again to see if there were things I missed, but the library book was due.

The story is pretty complicated to explain to anyone, so I convinced a friend to read it so I can actually discuss it with someone!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Gore, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, and Suicide attempt