Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

10 reviews

savorsophia's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Well-written, fast-paced, interesting mystery. Fairly gory, but not scary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Body horror

Moderate: Bullying, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Cultural appropriation

archaicrobin's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This chilly winter thriller is over the top and overdramatic and I loved it. The premise was intriguing but a little obvious and the characters interactions were cringey at times, but overall I enjoyed the craziness of this thriller, that always had me 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Rape, Blood, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

aliciavalenski's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Gore, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

kshertz's review

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

There were a lot of twists and turns. At some point it becomes almost too much, too unbelievable. A little scary! But besides some plot holes, I was totally engrossed in the book. It’s a thriller for sure and I was so curious to see how it was all going to turn out. The ending was satisfying for me!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Body horror, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Gore, Murder, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death, and Gaslighting

amris's review

dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Stalking, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Bullying, Excrement, Sexual content, Drug use, Gore, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Suicide, Genocide, Body horror, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, Vomit, and War

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I can definitely say this book got me out of a reading slump!

It’s a thriller so the writing isn’t as flowery/deep as I usually like to read, but this one was still 😘👌🏻 chefs kiss

There were so many twists and so many different factors that actually kept me entertained and hooked into what would happen. So aspects were predictable (how different can you possibly make a thriller?) but still fun to watch it play out and keep guessing

I’m a HUGE sucker for anything involving writers retreats/trapped bc of a blizzard/mirrored symbols/suspense/paranormal and this one had almost all of that!

Perfect amazing brilliant choice for either a cabin retreat (duh) OR a beach read imo

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Alcohol, Confinement, Torture, Violence, Abandonment, Drug use, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Outing, Racism, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Body horror, and Lesbophobia

laurafrances's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Biphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Confinement, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Body horror, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

penandpaper's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This book cleverly tricks you into thinking it’s going one direction and then subverts expectations in a way that it truly shocking yet feels so obvious in retrospect. It’s also a critique in a hyper specific community (white liberal creatives) in a way that is well done but might be a bit too niche.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Body horror, Alcohol, Blood, Violence, Physical abuse, Grief, Cursing, Confinement, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Stalking, Self harm, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Racism

yuyuv's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Drug use, Homophobia, Rape, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Medical content, Outing, Toxic friendship, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

blackcatkai's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

CW: death, violence (guns and otherwise), ableism, mental illness, emotional manipulation, murder, kidnapping, sexual content, toxic relationships (romantic & otherwise), drug use, torture, gore, alcohol use, body horror, racism, sexism

this was pretty good, especially for a debut, in my opinion. not a huge fan of how some mental illness was handled, especially the use of words like 'psycho' and such, but this was definitely entertaining. a couple twists, one of which I definitely saw coming, complicated characters, weird relationships, drama, and just kept my attention the entire time. I feel the pace was good, and it was well put together. I'd definitely read more from Bartz in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Body horror, Murder, Blood, Gore, Death, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Racism, Ableism, Sexism, and Grief