Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott

8 reviews

littlelizzieborden's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Mental illness

caterina_1212's review

challenging mysterious medium-paced

4.25

Magical realism is usually so earnest, but this mix of surrealism and whimsy (or irreverence) hit just right in a way I can't explain. I loved the stories with the witchy schoolgirls, the fog, the Homebody. The zombie chicken got built up so much in my head that of course it was disappointing,  but the rest was really good.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Infidelity, and Murder

nixieba25f's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Murder, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Ableism, and Animal death

chanlo1994's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I loved the imagination behind these stories. It's very creepy, which isn't something I would have normally read. I also liked the story told in the second person. You don't see those too often. Very beautiful writing and prose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Animal death, Grief, Body horror, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Cannibalism, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Minor: Sexual assault

elizabeth_lepore's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Infidelity and Animal death

bi_n_large's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, and Blood

Minor: Hate crime

karenreadsbooks's review

dark

3.5

First, I'm not usually a short story reader because I like to get a lot deeper into stories with more development so the short form doesn't work as well for me. I read this slowly, with a story here and there, usually one sitting per story. The author did a lot of different types of storytelling as far as formats and such, which I appreciated. Here are my thoughts on each story:

Sundown at the Eternal Staircase - neat concept; letdown in the telling

A Diviner's Abrecedarian - interesting storytelling format; too much mean girls

The Thread Boy - succinct, symbolic, good

Fox Jaw - completely unmemorable

The War of Fog - I think this one would have a lot to say if I spent more time unpacking it

Drowning Lessons - I was really enjoying this one but it just ended without any type of resolution

The Autumn Kill - really short and a bit gruesome, but I liked it; has a developed character

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart - inventive; sometimes disturbing illustrations; enjoyed the story within the entries

A Lily Is a Lily - I liked this one; am I supposed to connect it to the Tristan and Isolde (of the White Hands) story?

Dear Henrietta - creepy in a mostly good way

Possessions - cynical or realistic? probably not good for someone who has recently lost a loved one

Homebody - extremely symbolic

A Haunted Calendar - amusing snippets

The Plums at the End of the World - disturbing ... too disturbing

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an electronic ARC for review

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Animal death, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Murder, Misogyny, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, and Bullying

starrysteph's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.5

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart does indeed live up to the title: these stories will tag along behind you like ghosts, altering you ever so slightly as they tuck themselves into your ribcage.

They’re delightfully bizarre. These are tales you would hear in an old tavern or whispered down a chain of cleverly cruel young girls (with a hint of witchiness) or hidden in the pages of a dusty old book found at the back of your grandmother’s shelf. They feel familiar - like old bits of folklore - but are also devastatingly new.

Each story investigates our contradictions, slipping into the surreal to make sense of our present reality. They’re about loss and love, and monstrosity, and sacrifice, and rage. 

The prose is delicious. And the tone between stories shifts in an always-intriguing way. Sometimes it’s witty, aloof and winking at you with knowledge of the future. Sometimes it’s serious, agonizing over the fates of the characters. Many times it lingers between the two.

The stories include a warning of magically violent young women and their initiation of the new girl, an epistolary tale involving a friend’s betrayal and a peculiar sheepskin, a young woman who hollows herself out for a man and reshapes herself to his liking, and the titular bestiary which has a lot going on beneath its initial descriptions. 

There were one or two stories that didn’t grasp me in quite the same way, but that’s how collections always go for me. And the bulk of this grimoire (it feels like a grimoire, doesn’t it?) will sit with me for a very long time. 

CW: child death, murder, animal cruelty/death, war, body horror, blood, gore, self harm, bestiality, infidelity, drugs, vomit

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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Vomit, War, Body horror, Blood, Gore, Self harm, and Infidelity