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Reviews tagging 'Body horror'
You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson
10 reviews
hippievamp's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Graphic: Child death, Body horror, War, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Torture
Moderate: Death, Child death, Mental illness, Death of parent, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Infertility, Grief, Gun violence, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic
hayleepescod's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Moderate: Blood, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Death, Pregnancy, Animal death, Death of parent, War, and Medical content
hahanimation's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Medical content, Torture, Body horror, Gaslighting, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Pregnancy, Violence, War, and Toxic friendship
ru_th's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Everything is irrelevant.
Everything is important.
Everything is important, until it is irrelevant.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Until you cannot.
Memory is malleable. History is mutable. All I can do is try to make sure my story isn’t lost. I have saved what I can, so you will understand what we have become.
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Body horror, War, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, Violence, and Confinement
Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, Homophobia, Murder, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture
dylex's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Body horror
librarymouse's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: War, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Genocide, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Cancer
andromedial's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
4.0
Graphic: Body horror
cheye13's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Confinement
Minor: Gun violence and Gore
itacuz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Opening on an explanation of how the autobiography was found, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is almost as interesting in its minor editorializations, making up about five percent, as the narrative story being told. The narrator and subject of the novel is named Miriam, and her life is certainly interesting, if a little too relevant to be reading in the year 2021. A life of civil unrest, global war, and mysterious illness were not what I was in the mood for, but in order to remake the world, Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson had to first destroy it. It takes about half the novel and avoids living in the large scale ugliness, opting instead to describe a childhood political prison or commune slowly turned cult by radical outsiders. I enjoyed the earlier sections as I would any post-apocalyptic story; since the world being described is so similar to ours, I need it to say something interesting soon. I recognized where the world was headed from the podcast, if you’re hesitant though interested, get past the commune and judge from there.
When the civil unrest ends and the world begins to remake itself, Miriam takes techniques she learned in these worst of global situations to remap the mind. A technique called the “Watercolor Quiet”. The New Society takes on an anti-national bent, judging nations to be the fault of all the world’s problems. This leads to the concept of families being at fault for all the national issues, and using the Watercolor Quiet, are erased from civilization. This is when Kirsten Potter’s narration really came alive for me. I was impressed by her ability to switch between characters as Miriam reflecting on her life’s story and imbuing judgement when reading as herself in her modern day. I couldn’t tell if Potter was playing a fictional voice actor hired to read the manuscript for the editor Adepero Oduye’s character was publishing, or if she was reading as Miriam herself. The emotion in Potter’s voice while oscillating between experiences happening in the past and in the moment made the book feel alive. The rest of the story builds on lore that’s been fed into the podcast over time, but it goes to some really dark places by the end. I would not advise for those turned off by sometimes gruesome body horror, though all of it felt earned and vague as possible while still imparting the severity of certain character’s acts.
Oduye serves as an excellent fictional editor, though the writing of her position truly shines in the end. The final epilogue does so much for the entire novel and reads like some of the other greats within this genre. I don’t want to make any direct comparisons because I’d worry it would give everything away when the pacing is so well executed. From the voice acting acting to Cranor and Matthewson’s writing, everything about this book pulls off a spectacular story I couldn’t stop playing. I don’t want to live in the New Society, but this book confirms that any opportunity to unravel more of its lore is an invitation to gripping and well executed storytelling.
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Child death
chicafrom3's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Medical trauma, Ableism, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse and Child death