Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez

48 reviews

brigg_sy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

Horrible, vile, disgusting, and weird. An incredible selection of short stories that are so well-written, and enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, Blood, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Vomit, Mental illness, Murder, Gore, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Pedophilia

dariarp's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Vomit, Terminal illness, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Violence, Suicide, Self harm, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Drug use, Medical content, Chronic illness, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Death, Trafficking, Pedophilia, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

wiley_coyote5's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Transphobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

This is a dark, heavy book. Each story is about awful people, doing selfish things and getting punished for it.

glaybor's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Death, Self harm, Violence, Excrement, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Child death, and Terminal illness

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Trafficking, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Police brutality

anouk_adriana's review

dark fast-paced

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

3.25

What the fuck

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Addiction, Gore, Cannibalism, Trafficking, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death of parent, Medical content, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide

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

grace_alice's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Mental illness, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Child abuse, Trafficking, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, and Drug use

clara_mai's review

4.0

 This is an extremely dark short story collection, mostly set in Buenos Aires. As in her novel Our Share of Night, which I read and loved earlier this year, Mariana Enriquez creates a unique kind of horror that is very rooted in its setting - Argentinian politics and history, Indigenous mythology and urban legends of Buenos Aires are the bones of this collection. At its heart lie the strange obsessions we humans harbour - with bodies for instance, with sex and death. Most of the stories really pack a punch in only a few pages. I was captivated by Mariana Enriquez' simple and sharp prose and the scenes she creates. The descriptions of gore and injuries evoke a visceral reaction, Enriquez really knows how to make the reader squirm with disgust. My favourite stories in here are The Well, Meat and Our Lady of the Quarry. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Violence, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Excrement

Moderate: Alcoholism and Transphobia

lala_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

…not quite 5 because some of the stories were just a little too bizarre /made me feel a bit sick.

By far the stories that stick with me the most are:
- Where are you dear heart (that final line 😮)
- The Lookout 
- No Birthdays or Baptisms 
- Kids who come back 
- Meat 

Also, never did I think I’d read a book where someone pooping in the street would be one of the least weird things to happen! This happened in two of the stories!!!

I loved the spookiness and the pacing of these short stories. The imagery 10/10! I definitely need to venture into short story territory especially for horror because I’m amazed at by how much mystery and drama can be conjured up in a few pages!

I’d love to see these stories turned into a tv series! I’m definitely going to check out “Things we lost in the fire”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Cannibalism, Suicide, Child death, Mental illness, Self harm, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Excrement, Blood, and Classism

cosyskog's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, and it definitely needs to come with multiple content warnings. However, maybe the ugliness of some of the characters is the real horror, the unspoken realisation that they are just like people we already know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Sexual violence, Child death, Child abuse, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Body shaming, Drug use, Sexual assault, Suicide, Ableism, Classism, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Cursing, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Car accident, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Police brutality