Reviews tagging 'Death'

Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury

51 reviews

kay_chan's review

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

4.25

I absolutely loved this book! Do read over the trigger warnings, as the subjects discussed are strong. There's a lot of trauma in this book but it is every bit of a four-star read. 


Spoiler TWs:

Adult/Minor Assault
Child Abuse
Suicide
Death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

Minor: Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual violence

aksmith92's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

Spooky!

The Setup: Delicious Monsters follows two girls - Daisy and Brittany. Daisy is a seventeen-year-old living in Toronto who recently just went through a rather challenging breakup with some scum named Noah. She also has a tumultuous relationship with her single mom and distant dad. Daisy and her mom, Grace, soon find out that they inherited a house within their family - a mansion in Timmins, many miles from Toronto and a place where instead of the word "forest," "the bush" is used to describe the area surrounding the house; so, a big change! Grace leaves the decision to go up to Daisy since she has rather complicated feelings about the area and the mansion. Daisy decides she wants to start a new life away from her school and a rather horrific incident when she was younger, and of course, away from Nolan. Daisy and Grace pack their bags and head to the mansion to start a new life. Grace plans for her and Daisy to stay in the "bunkie" on the property while Airbnb the mansion. Daisy is ready to lay low for a huge reason: she can see dead people. Plot twist (but not; the summary on the back of the book mentions this, so it is not a spoiler)! Much of the story follows the rather interesting events at the mansion.

The story also follows Brittany, a college-aged woman working at a film company. She and her best friend Jayden are brainstorming what to film next after their massive success of Haunted and land on a story from 10 years prior about a mansion in Timmins. All we know is that Brittany wants to ensure this film series is a success since she wants the world to know about forgotten Black girls.

We know these two stories intersect, and while you can likely suspect how so, we don't find out until the end. Delicious Monsters is a good story about complicated familial matters, race, and very real monsters that may not look like you think.

What I liked: There was a lot packed into this book. While the two main protagonists, Brittany and Daisy, read a bit young, they were layered and nuanced, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them. They were complicated, messy, and imperfect, but their characters (and many others) seemed very real. I also thoroughly enjoyed the plot of the ghosts (seeing dead people) and a haunted house. The connection between the two was clever and unique. While some elements were undoubtedly predictable, the sub-plot ties were fascinating to witness. Overall, the plot was intriguing, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to the end to see what would happen. Liselle Sambury also did an excellent job integrating important topics like race into this novel and shared a critical topic about missing Black girls. I don't want to give too much away because of spoilers, but this was vital to read. But please be aware that while this read YA, it was dark. There were very challenging topics here to read, and please check some of the content warnings before proceeding (Sexual Assault, Rape, Suicide Attempt). Sambury also has some trigger warnings in her author's note before the story even begins.

What I didn't like: This was so long. While I read through this pretty quickly for how long it was (500+ pages), many things in the beginning might not have needed to be in there. A lot of the background helped paint the characters better, but at times it dragged. I almost DNF'd this book in the beginning. Thankfully, I kept going! After pages 50-75, it picks up more and even more after the halfway mark. A big reason why I almost DNF'd was that this read REALLY YA to me. Daisy was truly dramatic, a typical seventeen-year-old struggling with very VALID traumas. However, the writing made it seem so young to me, and as an almost 32-year-old, it was initially challenging for me. I started getting used to it at about the 1/3 mark and was glad I kept going to the end because it turned out to be a pretty good book. But, the young writing style was still challenging for me. This is a me thing and most certainly might not be a you thing!

Overall, it was well done and an interesting tale that included some important topics. I recommend it for a YA Fantasy with some spooky elements. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Cursing, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Body horror, Child death, and Rape

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, Confinement, and Animal death

Minor: Death of parent

Suicide attempt is on paper - towards the end of book. Please take care. Rape and sexual assault are written about frequently; there are some descriptive parts scattered throughout the book. Please take care.

aformeracceleratedreader's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

4.0

Definitely a slow read and a very emotionally heavy read. I recommend reading trigger/content warnings and the author did put them at the beginning of the book. 
The book encompasses "hurt people hurt people". I teared up a little bit. A good read with a blend of supernatural and heavy topics. It can be difficult to read even though not all the heavy topics were super explicit as it is a YA and can't be as graphic as an standard adult novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Grief, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Torture, Child abuse, Blood, Death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, and Sexual assault

bookjonez's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Sexual violence, and Adult/minor relationship

theoceanrose's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Death, Adult/minor relationship, and Child death

Minor: Child abuse and Pregnancy

bexmonkey's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Animal death, Blood, Death, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

queergoth_reads's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

Really fantastic. This book has me completely hooked. It is quite a slow build up but it keeps you gripped from the start. 

It really had me emotional. I almost cried few times which to me is always the mark of a good horror. It's not just scary, it gets me emotionally invested in the characters and their fates. 

Wish we'd had a bit more Brittany as I think I'd like to have known her better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Child death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Pedophilia

Minor: Animal death

ehmannky's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.5

I love a haunted house story where the haunting is a metaphor for grief and abuse. Tying these themes to this trope is just so powerful and hits so hard. We follow two timelines--Daisy, a teenager who can see ghosts who is living the haunted house story, and Britney, a young adult looking to break into the media business and escape from under the thumb of her abusive mother. This story centers missing and forgotten Black girls, the ways that Black girls fall through the cracks, the way abuse begets abuse and ripples across generations. It's a heavy read--I don't think that it's spoiling anything to say that childhood sexual and physical abuse are a main part of the story line of this book. But it's not graphically depicted, and you're mostly getting the painful aftermath of the experience. It's a fantastically written book and is one of the best YA books I've read in years. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Body horror, Grief, Physical abuse, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

nixieba25f's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Incest, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Stalking, Confinement, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Murder

tlaynejones's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Confinement, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Child death, Grief, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Fatphobia