Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

29 reviews

holly_117's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal death, and Body horror

avareadsoccasionally's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

5.0

I liked it a lot! I thought the concept was fun and I liked how it wasn’t exactly an everyday-werewolf book but it did still lean on some of those old werewolf stories. I thought the pacing of it was nice and I liked how it went back and forth in time as it went through the story. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this horror, though there was gore (which both are fine with me). Overall, a fun book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Child death, Murder, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Cannibalism

eevee314's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

SGJ is just next level. I wasnt even in the mood for this type of book currently but it was so compelling I just couldn't stop till I was done. The way he writes is both simple and wildly evocative. Hes excellent at capturing a feeling or action perfectly in as few words as possible. 
A really new take on werewolves. 
I wouldn't say it's scary like a horror movie but it's visceral and raw with horror elements.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence

Minor: Child death and Rape

booksthatburn's review against another edition

Focuses too much on a particular topic that's triggering to me.

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Violence, Pregnancy, and Death of parent

c_serpent's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was well written. I liked how the narrative switched back and forth between the main character's perspective and then a third-person perspective of different parts of his life. That was a cool narrative trick. I also really enjoyed how Jones took werewolf lore and just kind of ran wild (puns intended) with it. I liked the Americana voice. It was good horror-- spooky, unsettling, takes itself just seriously enough, feels just real enough, was pretty horrifying. Good job, Jones.

I didn't care about any of these characters, though, and I thought the ending was stupid.

Actually why did Libby leave? Why. There was no reason for that to happen. It felt fake deep and really disappointed me from a literary perspective. It felt like "I want to end on a bittersweet note so his mom figure is gonna bop off into the woods forever. Nice, literary, I'm such a writer." Which is lame.

A star has been given for Libby and Darren's relationship because siblings are everything. A star has been given for the truck-stop, American Gothic, liminal space feeling that Jones crafts in this novel. A star has been awarded for Grace Ellen. A star has been removed for the death of a grizzly bear. Another star has been removed for a lot of the characters being unlovable, albeit realistic.

Total score: 3/5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Death of parent and Gore

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

dornmoore's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Body horror

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Violence

nerodyne's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.75

It's hard to put into words how I feel about Mongrels. It definitely provided a take on werewolves that I haven't really ever seen before, and I think that had I read this book as a kid it would have changed something in me. The moving all the time, living paycheck to paycheck, living in shitty run down trailers and feeling like family is all you got, while worrying you aren't really the same as your family. It's definitely something I experienced in my youth, short of actually being a werewolf myself. When it comes to execution though, I struggled to fully connect with the writing style and while I usually love perspective changes and non linear stories, the ones in this felt a bit clunky and took some time to get used to. Not to mention, the story honestly got pretty nasty at times. It never felt unnecessarily obscene, it was clearly a matter of putting an animalistic lens on people, but I can't deny there were a few times I had to put down the book for a few minutes,

especially regarding the time that Libby fucked a dog and that family of werewolves broke into a Jewish cemetery to eat a recently deceased woman

. All in all, I'd probably recommend the book so long as you're someone who already likes supernatural horror to begin with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Animal death, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, and Physical abuse

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

It's just so slow for me and not interesting enough. I don't want to keep trying to make myself read something I'm not even remotely enjoying at this point. I think if I had the audio it would've helped, but my library doesn't have it. The concept is cool, love werewolves, and liked the beginning a little bit, but everything about this book isn't doing it for me. 
Sucks because I loved My Heart is a Chainsaw. I'll try another book by this author and hopefully it isn't like Mongrels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent, Alcohol, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Medical content

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Cannibalism, Confinement, Excrement, Gore, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Antisemitism, Bullying, Medical content, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Police brutality, Sexual content, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Pedophilia, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Drug abuse

Contains discussion of bestiality - as well as a scene where a werewolf in shift is mounted by a dog, albeit evidently against her will.
Antisemitism warning is just in case, for a chapter that involves a Jewish cemetery.

xennial_reader's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Domestic abuse