Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

57 reviews

kyra_joy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I had high expectations this book and it didn’t really disappoint, it was a great story on exorcisms, I didn’t find it very scary personally but I am a pretty avid horror fan so for someone less use to horror I could see it being quite creepy. More than scary for me it had some more disturbing parts, and in general was paced pretty well you could feel the building tension of the possession. I loved almost all the characters  who seemed very real, and overall had a wonderful reading experience! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Blood, Self harm, and Sexual content

andrea_95's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Extremely gripping read. The story catches you and doesn’t let you go again. The author's style, however, especially the way he writes conversations, took some time getting used to, thus I won’t give a full five stars. Nevertheless, the author did lots of research for this, medical and religious alike, which is impressive.

Father Karras, or Damien, as he is lovingly called by Merrin, is my personal favorite character.

The struggle with his faith against his medical and scientific knowledge is compelling and well-written, his triumph over the demon as he becomes the titular Exorcist, even in his own death, feels satisfying and appropriate. Even though there are only a few references to it in texts, like when the demon taunts Karras as homosexual, I personally read him as homosexual from the beginning, which may have been another reason for him to struggle with his faith. His close relationship with Father Dyer as well as Kinderman repeatedly inviting him to the movies seemed to be indicators of Karras' homosexuality. A very nice touch was the story ending with Kinderman and Dyer, walking off arm in arm, after Kinderman invites Dyer to the movies, both reminiscing about Karras, but also healing from the horrors that happened.

The possession of Regan as well as Chris' struggle to help her daughter were hard to read, especially Chris' helplessness as she employed doctor after doctor, all of who seemed unable to help Regan, let alone figure out what exactly was wrong in the first place. Chris' extremely close relationship to her secretary Sharon Spencer, who simultaneously acts as a tutor/nanny for Regan and thus even as a kind of mother figure to the girl, reads again like homosexual relationship between the two women, who, throughout all of the horrors, support each other emotionally and provide a shoulder to lean on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Vomit, Medical content, Body horror, and Excrement

looneysoysauce's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Medical content

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Alcohol, and Drug abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Antisemitism

nieva098's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

I really liked it. Almost couldn’t put it down. A bit unsattisfying end but other then that i enjoyed it! Would recommend checking trigger warnings though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Excrement, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Death, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

bookishconstellations's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Torture, Sexual content, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

uhhlexiconic's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring medium-paced

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

4.75

The Exorcist is absolutely frightening in the first half, but the horror gives way to a beautiful rumination of guilt, faith, and responsibility.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, Body horror, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Excrement, Alcohol, and Grief

thereadingdude's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Body horror, Cursing, Terminal illness, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual content, Medical content, Murder, Death, Gore, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, and Alcohol

poirot's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Vomit, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Murder, and Excrement

Minor: Child death, Drug use, Suicide, and Addiction

ocelotdoll's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.5

After my relatively disappointing horror experience with Rosemary's Baby, I decided to give the genre a second try with The Exorcist. Whilst it succeeded at being much more successful in scaring me, it failed to engage me with the same ease of reading. Having never seen the movie because I was already terrified of the few clips of the movie I had seen, it is possible that I was primed to feel scared by the book. Nevertheless, the book as a whole has a heavy atmosphere of despair, meaning that once Regan starts fully losing herself to the demon, the book stays persistently heavy with no levity to interrupt it. It is this atmosphere that and the few good genuinely scary scenes that carry the book for me, as the style and pacing both worked against my engagement with the book. Some of the stylistic issues can be attributed to the age of the book obviously, however, some dialogues can be particularly painful to read through with characters taking pages to get to a very simple point. Additionally, the vocabulary can sometimes feel a bit too repetitive to the point of negatively impacting the horror aspects. Regan moving her head like a cobra is disturbing once but when it is said in that way for the fifth time it loses a lot of its effect. The pacing is a different issue which unfortunately has no excuse. Regan's possession is a quick process, showing symptoms by the 10% mark and taking fully hold by 30%. However, reaching 30% felt like a trudge with chapters of character set up whose relevance is still unknown making them feel like needless delays to the demonic possession set up. Additionally, by the 60% mark, the attempts at scientifically explaining Regan's condition have ceased and the process of getting the exorcism done begins. This process is however mostly uninteresting, being a simple repeat of all of her symptoms until something clicks in the characters' heads making them accept the paranormal aspect of the situation (a click that is unecessary from the reader's perspective who is already aware of this nature). Thus, whilst managing much better at being unsettling, and sometimes genuinely scary, The Exorcist is not as enjoyable a read as Rosemary's Baby was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Vomit, Suicide, Body horror, and Violence

rbrtvzz's review against another edition

dark hopeful medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Vomit

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Antisemitism and Homophobia