Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

5 reviews

wrestleacademic's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Addiction, Abandonment, Body horror, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Alcohol, Blood, and Car accident

Moderate: Child death, Cancer, and Child abuse

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Trafficking

ro_lux's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Body horror, Gore, Suicide, and Transphobia

Moderate: Cancer, Fatphobia, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Alcohol, Car accident, Grief, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Confinement, Violence, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Racism

illuminatedspace's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

1.0

I think when I read this book, I'm to believe that the main character is kind of a sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist pos as a character flaw. However these views of the character are expressed so casually, explicitly, and often over this 600 page book I couldn't help but feel I was being indoctrinated with these garbage views. The lack of challenge the main character faces for these views is distracting over the length of the book. Nearly every non-white, non-cis male supporting character is described with harmful, uncharitable, and frankly boring stereotypes. This harmful depiction is reinforced by the fact that the characters do not say or do anything to challenge the initial description, not does anyone around the main character. This happened so consistently I couldn't help but wonder if the author also held these views or if they had just failed to create an unlikable/unreliable main character. The result was instead an unlikable world. Not challenging, or thought provoking but flat, informed by stereotypes and lacking nuance. I suppose the depth of the world is supposed to come from the lengths of depravity and pain people are willing to inflict on each other, but the cynicism of this worldview doesn't seem deserved?
The mystery was also kind of boring to me.

the mystery is kind of laid out early in the book and all the evidence gathering just confirms what was already told. Until the last 100 pages of the book when the biggest confirmation of evidence could possibly be a hallucination and the motivation could have been something else but maybe it's all real and maybe it isn't

. But the question of what really happened didn't feel like a fun puzzle to solve for me.
The mixed media elements are novel but not integral to telling the story.
If the book was shorter it may have been higher rated for me. It's not unreadable, but I hardly enjoyed any of the time I spent reading the book and nearly quit several times. I stayed for the resolution which in my opinion didn't really pay off and the denumont was so incredibly drawn out it felt like the book was ending 5 times before the actual last page. The climax was a bit of a page turner but the main character seemed to turn into a different person and some of their actions that provided the most dramatic situations seemed unmotivated. That paired with the fact that

the most interesting parts may have been a poisonous plant hallucination

wasn't enough to save the book for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence

tiemzahra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Oh, wow this book. My head hurts thinking of this. An investigative journalist suspects the death of a young woman had something to do with her father, a cult-horror film director, Cordova, who hasn’t been seen in public for more than 30 years. As he probed further into the case, more threats he encountered to stop his investigation.

This one gave me House of Leaves vibe. A fictional documentary that seems true, Cordova’s films feel realistic. There were screenshots of the cult website, pictures of his mansion (heavily edited but acceptable), lives of so many people involved; the actors and actresses and people they met along the way. It was a creepy book and both revelations (fake and true) were believable that I didn’t mind which one’s which.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Stalking

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Car accident, and Sexual harassment

tessieferro's review

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? It's complicated

1.0

Idiotic plot twist and insufferable narrator/main character (and frankly, a big bigot) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Suicide

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Torture

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Car accident, and Transphobia