Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Kartographie des Inneren by Stephen Graham Jones

13 reviews

cait's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Dysphoria, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Forced institutionalization

bluejayreads's review against another edition

3.5

Very weird, very short, very disturbing. It had some strong magical realism elements, but since the narrator was the only person to experience anything weird, it didn't feel like magical realism so much as one of those books where you're not sure if there's actually something supernatural going on or if it's all in the protagonist's head. But the back cover also calls it "deeply rooted in the contemporary Native American experience," so maybe it's actually including a particular tribe's understanding of or mythology around ghosts and I'm just missing the context to understand. This whole novella gives me a feeling that I'm missing something. By itself, it's a disturbing, incredibly dark horror story that never quite answers the question of whether or not any of this actually happened. But I also get the sense that there's deeper ideas that I just don't have the context or the analysis stills to really grasp. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gun violence, Body horror, and Ableism

Minor: Gore

judassilver's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Car accident, and Child abuse

Minor: Bullying, Gun violence, Ableism, and Forced institutionalization

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.0

I'm a huge fan of horror, the type that can handle gore, jumpscares, you name it, yet this book unsettled me EXTREMELY. The ending has left me more confused than any other book has this year. I cannot explain enough how reading this sleep deprived at 2 in the morning has freaked me out. From the beginning, this image of a looming man dressed in full dancing regalia scared me. I imagined the spirit in the shadows, not exactly a man but not something else either. The tension continued to build even when the ghost wasn't present, and I commend Stephen Graham Jones for that. The scariest thing to me turns out to be suspense and this book is overflowing with it. Some of the most unsettling things for me were

the disgusting pulsating nest underneath the house, the image of the father feeding on Dino's energy through his gaping maw, and the scene where those Frankenstein mutts eat him and tear off the regalia that turns out to be a part of his physical body.

Chills. I love reading unreliable narrators, I just didn't expect Junior to be speaking in the past tense. I thought the book would be entirely from a child's perspective. Not a problem just something I was surprised about.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Death, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Gaslighting

comrademolly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Car accident, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Body horror, Death of parent, Death, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-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

4.0

A short story that dives into the horror of dealing with intergenerational trauma, specifically what happens when you're not quite able to get away from replicating the pain that the people before you caused. I think it's interesting the way it shows that the replication of that pain can come from a place of love and devotion, and that it's not just active malice. I love Jones' writing in general, and I feel like this is one of his stronger novellas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Death, and Body horror

rtaire's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Forced institutionalization

random19379's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Violence

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.5

This was a good psychological horror, I couldn't tell if everything that was happening was real or just in the MC's head. The ending didn't seem to contradict that reading either. Honestly if this were a movie I might have to google "ending explained" lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Animal death, and Vomit

Moderate: Child death and Police brutality

kace's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Animal death, Vomit, Violence, Death, Car accident, Blood, and Body horror