Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

133 reviews

cd87's review

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Rape

blackcats_and_coffeecups's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Abandonment, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Murder, Death, Body horror, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

sprender13's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

this was going to be a 2.5 except the literal last 20% of it was so good. 

very VERY slow build up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body horror, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Incest

val_so_'s review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Murder, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Vomit, Alcoholism, Grief, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Classism

uv_sensibility's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Violence, Alcoholism, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Gore, Rape, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

sarahbw2's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.75

It’s definitely a love letter to the horror genre and I recommend it if you like horror movies. I had to DNF the book before because it is pretty slow in the first half but it really picks up in the second half.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Self harm

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, Rape, Blood, and Body horror

caterpillar's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Gore, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Child abuse, and Rape

Minor: Pregnancy

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.75

This is the 4th book I’ve read by Stephen Graham Jones (SGJ) and I think it’s my favourite so far.

While it was full of slasher references to movies I hadn’t seen, it didn’t make me feel lost for not having seen them, if anything it was a crash course in the genre. As someone who doesn’t watch horror movies, SGJ made me want to delve into the lore, and convinced me to watch Halloween!

Jade is my hero and I loved hearing her soliloquies on horror as she tried to piece together what was going on in Proofrock. There were so many red herrings that I couldn’t possibly guess what was going on, and was very surprised with how it ended on a cliffhanger. Luckily, the next book is coming out in a few months so I don’t have to wait that long.

Overall, this book was scary, slasher-y, colloquially academic, with an exploration of systemic racism and trauma that I keep ruminating on. Loved it and I can’t wait for more to come in this trilogy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

kyliebloch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, and Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

rhyanashah's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.25

I spent more time frustratedly talking to others about this book than I did reading it. I've never DNF'd a book but this is the closest I'd ever been 

From the absolutely infuriating main character, incredibly slow moving plot, messy finale, and a bordering obscene amount of referencial head-nodding that makes Ernest Cline's Oasis/Wade Watts series look timid. 

I struggled with every aspect of this book, and it's genuinely a shock considering how this book has almost everything i love.
Horror, non-white protagonists who must personally grow in spite of trauma, small town secrets, potential Queer storyline. 

Instead i have.... whatever thiw was. An insufferable lead, about 200 unnecessary pages and a lot of loose threads that were "Yada-Yada"'d through at the end. How can i be bored when there's MURDER happening? And yet. The "sisterly" relationship between our main and another character just came across like "historians will say they were friends" energy. 

Also TW/Spoiler warning

did not enjoy whole scenes of our protagonist being effectively deadnamed and outed as a child victim whilst 4 other characters try and force them to confront/confess allegations against their parent. 

I must also add that i never EVER feel comfortable about men writing from the perspective of young women/female children who have been S/A'd or R****d.

Whilst not all of the topics i've put in the content warning are Graphic, they are all frequent and i do emplore anyone considering reading this book to consider if they will be affected by these topics, and to avoid if that is the case.

In a summary, i think the book is about 50% too long and i was disappointed by about 150 pages in, but continued on. The ending was VERY disappointing. I only said "medium paced" because 300 pages are slow and 150 aren't but there is no "inconsistently paced" option.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Murder, Racism, Deadnaming, Blood, Colonisation, Self harm, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Child death, Rape, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Abortion

As said in my full review: Whilst not all of the topics i've put in the content warning are Graphic, they are all frequent and i do emplore anyone considering reading this book to consider if they will be affected by these topics, and to avoid if that is the case.