Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop

44 reviews

karolinak's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Repetition is a big motif in this book. It clearly has a purpose. It illustrates the pointless nature of the countless wars we have fought and continue to fight. It shows the main character's state of mind after a traumatic event, how a thought, a memory, can find its way into your head an keep running in circles, torturing you, slowly driving you mad. Eventually it reveals a language barrier as well. It is no fun to read, however. I noticed it immediately, and about 20 pages in it started to grate on me pretty badly. 

The violence is shocking. I actually had trouble reading some parts from the very begining so be aware, there is gore and horror awaiting. 

There was some really really good stuff in here, some great commentary on war, violence and its effect on people, the expectation that soldiers should be able carry on as normal civilised citizens once the barbaric violence of battle ends, without proper support, which is just ludicrous. There's questions about what kind of violence and by whom is acceptable (what's worse, sevend hands of enemies or seven lives of comrades?), where does a line need to be drawn and who decides. And booooy is there madness.

Despite some the stylistic choises that dampened my enjoyment while reading this book I find myself impressed with the work overall. 
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agustdefault's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

4.0

brutal and violent but incredible. the way the author writes the horrors of war and grief and guilt was a visceral experience 
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sapphire_mayo's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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

4.25

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ghost_rider's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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amselot's review

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challenging dark medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

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aperl1's review against another edition

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dark
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

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kalem's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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tamingofthedew's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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fatimasiddiqui's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.25

basically the end was a psycho type situation which is interesting i guess but now seems cliche bc i made that connection
overall a really disgustingly harrowing book especially in the first half. its a hard one to rate because while it is really interesting its also not something i enjoyed reading at all because of three things: 
1. the writing is so repetitive even though its brilliant at times - i swear the book would've been 50 pages shorter if it wasn't so repetitive. 
2. my audiobook narrator was using the most annoying breathy voice to read the book 
3. the subject matter is so gory like i never want to read the word disembowelled ever again 
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innastholiel's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I’m a little torn about this one, to be honest. I really enjoyed the writing, it’s very compelling (God’s truth, repetitive though it is). But what I don’t enjoy is the weirdly objectifying sexual imagery. Like, I get it, the trench is your home and because your mommy left when you were a kid you think of it as a womb, so you think of its entrance as a vagina, but still. It’s weird without really making a point. I really would like to pretend that there is a legitimate reason for including this imagery that I’m too dumb to understand because I’m not a literary academic, and I want to pretend that this isn’t just — to bring my own gratuitous sexual metaphor into it — society having a boner for objectifying women and seeing them suffering. Of course both of those things could be true, but if it’s only one of them, I think we all know which one is the more likely candidate.
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