Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw

11 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Body horror, Suicide, Death, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Deadnaming and Vomit

remibaker's review

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.0

Good read. Pretty faced pace. Quite descriptive in the environment - it can be a bit overwhelming/confusing trying to keep track of everything going on, but I enjoyed the plot 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

hexillith's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

ahab_jr's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Violence, and Body horror

amandadevoursbooks's review

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

4.25

Ok so this book. Goodness gracious, I'm glad I read it. It has scenes it that make my teeth hurt and make me cry thinking about them. Check the trigger warnings carefully. I likely will read it again. 

In this book we follow a group of outlaws who separated 40 years ago after a job went wrong. They are getting back together to find their comrade who is missing in action.

 
There's AIs the size of ships with fascinating culture and uncertain intentions.  There's cloning. there's cyborgs. There's queer relationships. It's delicious and disgusting all at the same time. 


The only thing: the author used a ton of obscure words. I have a pretty good vocabulary, and I looked up over 70 words. At times, the big words were repeated, and it felt forced. It didn't distract from the story. If you lived for 200 years or were an AI, of course you'd pick the best weird for each occasion. 

I'll be reading more from this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Body horror, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Transphobia

vegetablemathematics's review

adventurous dark fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Domestic abuse

erikwmj's review

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

storieswithbee's review

dark tense

2.0

Argh, I really try to enjoy sci-fi but I’ve never been a huge fan. I thought the book sounded interesting so I wanted to give it another go but the genre just doesn’t sit well with me. I think there is definitely readers that will enjoy the book. The story was intense. There is some trigger warning to be aware of

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

yavin_iv's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

Minor: Slavery and Deadnaming

bookishjournal1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.0

 
The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw was a roller coaster of a read for me. The book is about a group of women who were once part of a criminal group called The Dirty Dozen. They spent years together being able to reincarnate into cyborg bodies before their last mission went horribly wrong and the group disbanded. Years later they have to reunite to save one of their own and to return to the place where their last mission went wrong. 

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and was looking forward to diving into the world that Cassandra Khaw built. The world building in this book is incredible and I felt completely immersed because of the descriptive writing style. I also enjoyed reading about this group of women and how their grief and anger has been handled in different ways and seeing all the messiness that comes when you have clashing personalities and agendas. I also really liked how diverse the characters are and always enjoy seeing POC and queer representation in any book.

At first, it was rather difficult for me to get into this book. The writing style is pretty intense and I did feel like it was getting bogged down by the amount of adjectives being used while it almost made me feel like I was reading a bunch of SAT words strung together when simpler terms could have conveyed the point across. After about 80 pages I did want to put the book down but I kept going and found myself enjoying the pacing and the writing style a lot better in the back half of the book. I know some people are going to enjoy the kind of over descriptive prose found in this novel but it didn't really work for me for most of this book. 

Overall, I think Cassandra Khaw has written a very sumptuous books with the kind of science-fiction world building others can only dream of and filled it with characters that fascinating, infuriating, and realistic all at the same time.

I was given an e-ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence