Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

66 reviews

jffgldblm90s's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

Excellently portrayed demons, monsters, and abominations — yet the scariest stuff is sometimes just the plague.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia

madison_mls's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.25

It’s givinggggg The Last of Us but make it dark ages and biblical end of times :). No but this book genuinely had me repulsed, scared, and loving the adventure all at the same time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Religious bigotry, War, Rape, and Sexual content

colleen_corleone's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

I wasn't aware how much I loved these characters until the last 35% of the book where I started crying during different emotionally charged scenes.

The humor is wonderful and much needed as more horrific events unfold. I love their banter. I want to use cunting more often in sentences going forward. It's such a fun word to help break up the normal American swearing I do.

I love going into a book relatively blind, but for anyone who needs more context:

There is a cunting lot of gore, assault, death, dismemberment, cannibalism, unintentional necrophilia. That's in most chapters and part of the ever-present background of the world.

The relationship between Thomas and the young girl (whose name you learn later) is beautiful and bittersweet. He takes good if reluctant care of her.

For a general spoiler

Thomas and the girl make a friend whose death was the first time I cried, surprising myself. I didn't realize until that moment how much I loved loved these characters.

I cried three other times during deaths and hard battles. The general feeling of dread and/or terror keeps a low hum that built when I least expected it.

I am buying a physical copy to reread in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Excrement, Alcohol, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Grief, Animal death, Antisemitism, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Self harm

polygonia's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pedophilia, Homophobia, Body horror, Rape, War, Genocide, and Sexual assault

vynna's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a very dark and brutal novel that started off strong, but gradually lost me by its conclusion. The story is set in the 1300s following a disgraced knight, a priest, and an orphaned girl. They set out on a journey through plague ridden France to essentially save the world from demons.
I was really intrigued by this premise and thoroughly enjoyed the banter between the main characters as well as the author’s imagery. I was often scared by the vivid detail used to describe the horrors that these characters experienced.

The stone statues in Paris and the scarecrow in the abandoned convent will stick with me for awhile.

The book felt really epic and cinematic at parts too, and I think it could make a wonderful series due to the episodic nature of the chapters.
I would’ve rated it higher, but sadly the weak plot, confusing narration, and underwhelming ending took away from my enjoyment.
They go on this great journey, but it feels hollow as they just bounce from town to town not exactly sure what they’re doing, just fighting monsters. It was fun to read, but left me wanting more. It isn’t until the last third of the book that it seems like the characters have a plan, but their actions and the aftermath of the big finale didn’t really make sense to me.
Definitely take heed of content warnings before reading as there is a lot of death, violence, strong language, etc. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cursing, Violence, Rape, Child death, Death, Self harm, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, and Homophobia

jacobimerman's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Death, Torture, War, Body horror, and Pandemic/Epidemic

straaay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Body horror, Sexual content, Murder, Torture, Alcoholism, Gore, and Death

nashley's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Religious bigotry, War, Violence, Sexual content, Cursing, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Death, Physical abuse, Child death, Antisemitism, Murder, Excrement, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Blood

gringolet's review against another edition

dark hopeful 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

4.0

Well researched, succeeded in capturing the feel of the period and really excellent for anyone who likes religious horror, medieval settings, and the plague, which is me. It is weirdly Catholic on a fundamental, foundational level, however I think writing anything set in medieval Europe kind of requires that headspace and it was Catholic in a "cool with gay people" way, so it didn't bother me too much. The characters were grounded in the period and yet still dynamic, interesting and likeable, and the horror elements were well done with some fun messed up creatures and gore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Gore, Body horror, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Rape, War, Vomit, Outing, Ableism, Animal death, Xenophobia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Child death

typo2d's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

This is a difficult book to review. While the overall writing and creativity is fantastic, too much of the novel is focused on detailed explorations of the sexual habits of essentially every minor character that shows up. That focus takes a lot away from the drive of the plot, muddying the narrative and removing strength from the theme of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Torture, and Body horror

Moderate: Homophobia and War