Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan

12 reviews

mlev97's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

mfrisk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Getting to know the Evans women was a lot of fun and this vampire story set in a small town was well worth it. I felt like this book kept the action going from start to finish while also feeling somewhat of a cozy horror (cozy in the sense of the relationship building but not lack of horror elements). It is gory, gross, and adds some new elements into vampire lore which I thought was a great way to revitalize what we feel we already know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Gore

amina_writes_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

the storyline was quite good (minus the random Andy request at the end, that seemed unlikely and a swipe from nowhere) and was definitely a page turner. Love that it took place in Texas yet still highlighted minorities that hardly get acknowledged with air time here like the goths and the gays. The narrative style between the different chapters/ perspectives was not well done and read just like a standard narrative cover to cover. A keeper due to many themes that are hard to find but hardly the writing itself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, Excrement, Cannibalism, Gore, Blood, Death, Medical content, and Violence

Minor: Bullying, Body shaming, Homophobia, and Fatphobia

clairebonney's review against another edition

dark mysterious

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death of parent, Vomit, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Belle the dog does not die, but she is severely injured, which is described on the page and could be distressing to read

michellec13's review

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Gore

coffeeandprose's review against another edition

dark 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? N/A

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, and Blood

jjsbookcase's review against another edition

dark 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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, and Death

ktdakotareads's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Death, and Child death

apairofducks's review against another edition

4.25

This book is not at all what I expected from the cover. It’s much more of a horror novel than the quirky vampire cover, and it’s not really a vampire novel at all— still, it had great characters and fun (albeit incomplete) world-building. 
My biggest complaint is that the pacing of every action scene was a bit all over the place, like the author didn’t have experience writing stories coming to a head and not just being characters hanging out, but overall, they worked. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Vomit, Murder, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, and Medical content

Minor: Homophobia and Mass/school shootings

thisbookisbananas's review

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Set in Beaumont, TX, Bless Your Heart is a slow-burn small town horror novel that was just the right amount of slice-of-life and strange/gruesome/weird that kept me reading until the very end. 
I would say this book’s overall feel is B-movie horror( I mean this in the best way possible). It’s campy and pulpy good fun. I enjoyed the idea of inter-generational  group of women fighting the undead. Lindy Ryan’s depictions of horrific scenes were just the right amount of shocking and gory, yet were paced out enough so that my brain could recuperate from the jarring scenes. 
I was pleasantly surprised that the backdrop of the book is Beaumont, Texas in 1999, a time and place near and dear to my heart. I live very close to this town and was a middle schooler during this time! I enjoyed the author’s nod to southeast Texas restaurants(Rao’s,y’all!), shops (Parkdale Mall!),and the overall feeling of home and nostalgia in this book.
I will gladly pick up another book by Lindy Ryan and look forward to what she has coming up after this. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Vomit