Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez

9 reviews

nefarious_rat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

collection of short stories so character progression and such is difficult, but within each story the characters were distinct and never felt rushed, some of the stories were not to my taste but still very well written, favourites are, our lady of the quarry, the well, the lookout (particularly the characterisation of elina), where are you dear heart (grotesque and delicious my absolute favourite i keep re-reading it), and meat (a very close second favourite for the exact same reasons)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Addiction, Suicide, Child death, Lesbophobia, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Police brutality, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Abandonment, Cancer, Excrement, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, Torture, Body horror, Cannibalism, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Vomit, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Stalking, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Infidelity, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Outing, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Biphobia, Cancer, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Confinement

ladyleshwi's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Como en "Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego", dos cuentos se destacaron sobre el resto: "El aljibe" y "El mirador fueron mis favoritos. A diferencia con la colección anterior, en este hay dos cuentos que me parecieron innecesarios y muy turbios a tal de punto que llegaban a ser muy asquerosos: "Donde esta mi corazón" y "Ni cumpleaños ni bautismos", son cuentos que odie con toda mi alma y hubiera preferido no leerlos en toda mi vida. 
El resto fueron bastante entretenidos, mención honoraria a "El carrito" me gusto mucho su final.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Pedophilia, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Racism, Classism, Body shaming, Addiction, and Child abuse

Minor: Trafficking

krhe's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

El relato de los problemas de corazón... Esto no lo voy a olvidar en mi puta vida. 

ALSO LO DE LOS CRÍOS REAPARECIDOS WTF

Trigger warnings: todos 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Racial slurs, Self harm, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Cannibalism, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Dementia, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Child abuse, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexism

diegocanread's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Racism, Violence, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Self harm, Terminal illness, Dementia, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Drug abuse, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts

Es una locura algunas veces

pages_with_panda's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad

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

4.0

Because this is a collection of short stories by the author, I'm going to split the reviews up by story. I've also included content warnings for each story as well and a single sentence summary. 

 Angelita Unearthed: 5/5
Woman is haunted by the dead baby corpse of her great-aunt.
Really liked the story! Very simple but super creepy and unsettling. I thought the relationship between the two characters was kinda funny - almost siblings. Lowkey the last scene made me chuckle.
• Moderate: Death of a child, Body horror, Gore,

Our Lady of the Quarry: 4/5
Teenage kids sneak into a quarry for the summer.
Good story, nice build up. Love any kind of revenge story and this was no exception. Good for Natalie.
•  Moderate: Sexual content,
• Minor: Death,

The Cart: 2/5
A mysterious stranger shows up the neighborhood before horrible things start happening.
I did like where this story was going for the most part,. Again, I like revenge stories...But the story fell apart at the end and I couldn't really make heads-or-tails of what happened.
• Moderate: Excrement, Violence, Classism,
• Minor: Racism, Suicide, Animal death, Cannibalism

The Well: 5/5
A young girl suffers from severe anxiety of death and monsters.
Another favorite. Very, very unsettling and dark. The mystery surrounding what happened to her during that first trip was so interesting. Very well done. Sad ending.
• Moderate: Suicide,
• Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts,

Rambla Triste: 2/5
A neighborhood is haunted by murdered children.
I couldn't really understand the premise for this one at all. Was a little interesting but didn't seem to have a point to the story.
• Moderate: Pedophilia, Child abuse,
• Minor: Excrement, Child death,

The Lookout: 3/5
A Lady in a tower overlooks the hotel where she lives and invites another women to visit.
Had a nice "The Shinning" vibe and also some mystery regarding the Lady Upstairs. An okay story.
• Graphic: Self-harm,
• Minor: Rape, Attempted suicide, Drug abuse

Where are you, Dear Heart? : 5/5
A girl becomes obsessed with irregular heartbeats and tries to find the most imperfectly perfect one.
Incredibly unsettling. Can't stop thinking about this premise and the absolute horror of it. "What the fuck did I just read!?" But in a good, horrific way.
• Graphic: Medical
• Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Ableism,

Meat: 5/5
Two super fanatical fans of a rock star exhume his body and eat his corpse.
Another very disturbing story. Very well laid out and I really liked it. Horrific.
• Graphic: Suicide, Cannibalism,
• Moderate: Self-harm, Vomit
• Minor: Blood

Neither Baptism or Birthday: 3/5
A man tries to record a girl's hallucinations.
Very creepy story. Interesting build up as well. Ending fell a little flat.
• Moderate: Sexual content, Pedophilias, Mental illness, Self-harm

The Kids That Came Back: 5/5
Hundreds of missing children rematerialize but are the same age as when they disappeared.
I really liked this one. Super unsettling and creepy. Had a nice buildup as well and an interesting POV from Machi. (Interesting enough, compared to the Spanish version, the English version of this story had added a few sections of backstory that I think were completely unnecessary, especially because they added some slurs. And really added nothing to the story.)
• Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide
• Minor: Kidnapping, Death, Transphobic slur, Drug abuse,

Dangers of Smoking in Bed: 1/5
Woman smokes in bed.
Uninteresting. Couldn't really get into it. Thought the title story would be great but it fell flat.
• Moderate: Fire,
• Minor: Death, Sexual content, Blood

Back When We Talked to the Dead: 3/4
A group of girls use an Ouiji board. 
A basic premise but interesting anyways! Unsettling but not too bad. 
• Minor: Ableism slur (Spanish version) 

Overall review for the book: 4/5. Solid stories! This is a horror book so check content warnings. Not suitable for young readers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Sexual content, Self harm, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Ableism, Vomit, Gore, Excrement, Violence, Classism, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Cannibalism, Child death, and Body horror

Minor: Racism, Animal death, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, Cannibalism, and Rape

Use of transphobic slurs and ableist slurs

goatsrsexy's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

4.0

I really enjoyed this short story collection. The author is Argentine and always enjoy reading books from Argentine authors because my mom was born there. The stories were not all necessarily horror (most were) but they were all haunting and spooky. 

Some were extremely disturbing, this book is definitely not for the faint of heart. The most disturbing was No Birthdays Or Baptisms. I still liked it but wouldn't read it again. 

My favourite story was definitely the titular one, it was super short but sad and melancholy in such an ordinary way it's the type of thing l'd like to write myself. Other favourites were The Cart, The Well, Meat, and Where Are You Dear Heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Racism, Transphobia, Racial slurs, and Body horror

franzys_whip's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

Graphic: Cursing, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Blood, Gore, Ableism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Child death, Violence, Trafficking, Body horror, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Excrement, Self harm, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Classism, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

Minor: Grief

It's...definitely a lot, but I swear this book is so good beyond all that

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Racial slurs, Self harm, Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Cannibalism, and Chronic illness

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Rape

angelnati's review

dark fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Fatphobia, and Transphobia