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madzsmiled's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Xenophobia, Gore, Death, Miscarriage, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Body horror, Murder, Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical trauma
ribbenkast's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
3.75
However the books suffers a bit from the gothic pitfall where in the first half it's just vibes and nothing much really happens. The pace really picks up near the ending though! Admittedly I do think the book ends on a bit of a weak note. I think there's space for a sequel I'll gladly pick up if it ever gets published.
All in all, this was a great debut. I'll be certainly be on the lookout for any books that Hiron Ennes writes in the future.
Graphic: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Body horror, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Ableism, Xenophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Classism, Chronic illness, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Rape
cgbn's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Rape, Xenophobia, Vomit, Torture, Body horror, Genocide, Violence, and Suicide attempt
fangirljeanne's review
I was really enjoying aspects of the story and the audiobook narration by Abigail Thorne is fantastic, but the excessive and unnecessary (imo) anti-fatness kept taking me out of the story. It’s the classic the mean, bigoted, rich white guy is fat and is always described in exaggerated details explicitly depicting his fatness not only as disgusting but symbolic of his internal corruption.
Otherwise it’s a wonderful exploration of identity and a fun take on parasites and body horror with liberal dashes of dark humor.
Such a shame.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Fatphobia, and Bullying
lexi17d's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Leech is a dark sci-if following a doctor who travels to a remote town to research a mysterious illness that has killed the previous doctor of the town. I can’t say much more about the plot without spoiling anything, but trust me when I tell you this book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
The beginning of this book has a dense scientific prose which took me a little while to get used to, but once the technical terminology settled down, this book was such a tense and exciting read. As the debut novel of Hiron Ennes, consider me impressed.
I did feel as though the ending was a little too abrupt. It could have benefited from having an extra 20 or so pages to close the book out, and I still feel as though there are some questions that are left unanswered. Besides these critiques, this was an incredible debut novel and I cannot wait to read more novels by this author.
TWs included in review
Received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Graphic: Body shaming, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Animal death, Abortion, Homophobia, Death, Self harm, Pregnancy, Murder, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Child death, Ableism, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, and Violence