Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Leech by Hiron Ennes

27 reviews

jully_bean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

I absolutely loved this book! The strange post-apocalyptic world sucked me in and kept me wanting more information. I will say the ending was a little dull and there were a few things that never got answered or resolved, such as

what ended up happening with the twins?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Gore, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Suicide, Child death, Medical content, Alcohol, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Physical abuse

charlatte_lee's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Gore, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Infertility

liltakeawaygirl's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Infertility, Violence, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Blood, Bullying, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Misogyny

Minor: Colonisation, Grief, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Child death, and Vomit

madzsmiled's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Ennes’ debut novel is a grotesquely beautiful, apocalyptic saga of disease, human hubris, and reclaiming identity. While it took awhile for me to ground myself in the reality of the story, Ennes unveils the secrets of this world layer by layer, building out the lore with every turn of the page. The more you learn about the Institute and Pseudomycota, the more tangled their reality becomes. Humanity has to survive not only invasive parasites, but its own ego and destruction. Every reveal hits you harder than the last. 

 

Definitely would recommend, but please read the content warnings. This one is a doozie, but oh so good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Gore, Death, Miscarriage, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Body horror, Murder, Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical trauma

augustboxer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Body horror

bumblebeefarts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Miscarriage, Infertility, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Pregnancy, and Medical content

Moderate: Rape, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, and Classism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, and Chronic illness

beccalynnfrank's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Truly did not know what to expect at any time, definitely not a happy ending but a realistic one 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, and Emotional abuse

hmstaab's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Body horror, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Physical abuse, Excrement, Infertility, Miscarriage, Colonisation, Death, and Rape

willow_the_wisp's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Infertility, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

eb2701's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

While I think this is a very well conceived and well executed book, I found myself disappointed in what it chose to focus on. While it promised to be a complex exploration of identity and bodily autonomy, I found it to be quite cut and dry and even a bit heavy handed with its moral messaging about autonomy. 

while yes, obviously taking people’s bodies is bad, the Institute makes the point that it has to survive too, and needs human hosts to sustain itself. Is it evil to do what you have to to survive? Parasites are just fulfilling their ecological niche. And the book dismisses this question out of hand and doesn’t pick it up again. I would have been much more interested in grappling with that dilemma than so quickly concluding that no, parasitic lifeforms do not deserve to survive under any circumstances. Similarly, when Simone's personality began to assert itself, I found that I would have much rather been spending more time with the doctor in the second half of the book than having to get to know an entirely new protagonist that I found less interesting than sitting with the uneasy state of being one semi-autonomous disposable body in a collective.

 

That said, the prose is excellent and the structure of the book is very strong. I really enjoyed the throughlines of folklore and supernatural imagery, and the subtextual richness of parasitism as metaphor, parallelism both class oppression and the insidious nature of sexual abuse. The overall gothic framework functions perfectly, and the body horror is great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Body horror, Death, and Murder