Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

18 reviews

celery's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 ​​​​Short N Sweet Review:

​   I just kept waiting for the book to improve and find out what all the hype was about. Well, it didn't. One of the twists I didn't see coming for most of the book. The final "twist" was pretty obvious. G was fairly insufferable as well, which didn't help the book.

Narrator Rating:​ 5.0 stars

   The narrator did an amazing job with all the voices! 

 

Elements 

Heartfelt-  💔 💔 💔  
Horror-  N/A
Love aka Romance- 💋 💋 💋 & 1/2
Predictability- 🔮 🔮 🔮 🔮 
Spice-  🌶 
Tear- 😭 😭  & 1/2
Thrill- 😲 & 1/2
Humor-  😜 😜 & 1/2

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War

Minor: Vomit, Medical content

orvillefartenbacher's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous funny lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol

leedolee's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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: Complicated

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A different kind of murder mystery with magic, politics and an intriguing world. The characters were wonderfully diverse and I'm glad for that. Fast paced read that really kept you on your toes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

lizsim's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

embermatthews's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Dee Piscero is the sole heir to his province, the next in line to inherit the lowest rung on the ladder, and completely and utterly un-Blessed. Problem is, the leaders and heirs of the other 11 provinces don’t know that last part. Now he’s trapped on a ship with the 11 most powerful people in the empire, all of whom posses magic unknown to him, for 12 days. All he has to do is piss them off enough that he isn’t invited to any party ever again, and hide the fact that his father has produced enough bastards that one of them inherited the devastating storm magic he pretends to have - with a minor side quest of not getting murdered somewhere along the way, since everyone is dropping like flies, and figuring out who the killer is before they get him and those he loves. A tongue-in-cheek writing style blends Fruits Basket with a game of Clue in this magical murder mystery where everyone is a suspect, and nobody is safe. Everybody has a secret, and secrets always come out.

White’s particular style of fantasy is one I initially balked at - hot dogs are mentioned pretty early on, the magic system is revealed slowly and in increments, and the contemporary style of speech all pin this in the “fantasy-ish” category for me. But as the story goes on it becomes clear that the magic system is secret for a purpose, the contemporary aspects of the story are a function of a blended society comprised of 12 distinct cultures, and hot dogs aren’t that far out of the realm of fantasy (because they are just mystery meat sausages anyway. No one would have been startled to read “sausage” in a Brandon Sanderson novel I’m sure.) The style of writing lends itself well to the world White crafted, and it gives a witty voice to the narrator who is living through horrific events. It is a story that could have been written in a somber tone, but doing so would lose its heart.

On the down side, I love lore. I obsess over it, I dissect it, I talk my partner’s ear off about it and make assumptions based on it. And due to the strained nature of relationships between provinces, we don’t get to learn about many of their cultures outside of its brief relevance to the story. I could have used a hundred or so pages interspersed throughout the book explaining each province and their culture more in depth and still been happy.

A murder mystery is nothing if not twisted, and this book did not disappoint with the twists and turns. I had so many suspicions, so many theories to who and how, that the WHY didn’t occur to me until the very end.

In the end I would 100% recommend this book to anyone who wants a standalone fantasy novel with mystery and heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Blood, Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

messystopheles's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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

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GOOD SHIT

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

skyfluff's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

brittaanson's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, Classism

caitibeth's review against another edition

3.0

funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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Fantasy murder mystery that's billed as adult but is really YA. Sort of a cross between And Then There Were None & Death On The Nile, with a bunch of young people with assorted magical powers (there's a 6yo and a 14yo, and the rest act 16-21, although I believe some are allegedly a bit older) stuck on a journey on a magical boat (so nobody besides themselves).

There's a lot of diverse rep here, from sexuality to gender to size to mental health. One note of caution: the MC is fat and struggles with food, and I believe this was intended to be positive rep but if so it isn't handled well and could be triggering. 

The worldbuilding is a bit shallow and simplistic here, and personally I feel the book would have been better in 3rd person than 1st person present tense. The narrator's quirkiness is a bit too forced at times for me.

Overall, this is an engaging book and a ton of people love it. I mildly liked it. If the characters had been older (and less exhaustingly teenagery) and the worldbuilding deeper, I probably would have liked it more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Suicide attempt, Murder

Moderate: Eating disorder