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kajoreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Terminal illness, Body horror, Grief, Suicide, and Dementia
Moderate: Vomit, Blood, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Lesbophobia, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Animal death
aristarcodisamo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Moderate: Blood, Grief, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide, Vomit, Sexual content, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Terminal illness
the_true_monroe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Death of parent, Terminal illness, Confinement, Body horror, Gaslighting, Blood, Grief, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Self harm, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Dementia, Lesbophobia, and Sexual content
maeverose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
TL;DR: As other people have said, this isn’t so much horror as a book about grief with horror sprinkled throughout. I was interested to see what would happen the whole way through and I do tend to like books about grief, but in the end am left feeling overall ‘meh’ about the book.
A note on the horror elements for those worried about it:
If you’re especially bothered by body horror, gore, or themes of going insane I would go in prepared for that if you plan on reading it. I’m not a horror reader and I dislike reading those themes, but most of this book was fine for me (check my content warnings section for which parts to skip if you also dislike these themes but want to read anyway. You can’t really skip the ‘going insane’ stuff unless you just don’t read any of Leah’s chapters, but you’d be missing out on some parts of the story then). That being said, you know what your own limits are best. I have a moderate tolerance for gore in books and I’m rarely bothered by non-gory body horror. If you have a low tolerance overall, I’d probably skip it.
Now on to my thoughts:
(Vague/minor plot spoilers, but not really since this is not a plot-focused book)
I liked the way the Centre was depicted as this mysterious corporate entity, and wish that was explored more, as well as
On that note, I’ll end with some quotes about grieving missing loved ones that I liked:
“-grieving was complicated by lack of certainty, that the hope inherent in a missing loved one was also a species of curse.”
“In almost every case, the sense of loss was convoluted by an ache of possibility, by the almost-but-not-quite-negligible hope of reprieve.”
“Grief is selfish: we cry for ourselves without the person we have lost far more than we cry for the person - but more than that, we cry because it helps. The grief process is also the coping process and if the grief is frozen by ambiguity, by the constant possibility of reversal, then so is the ability to cope.”
Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Terminal illness, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, and Dementia
Moderate: Sexual content, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Vomit, Cancer, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Lesbophobia and Fatphobia
There are depictions of people gradually losing their mind in confinement,zombiezami's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Body horror and Medical content
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Sexual harassment
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Terminal illness, Death of parent, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, and Medical content
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Dementia, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
Minor: Incest, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, and Sexual harassment
petricampp's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Minor: Lesbophobia and Sexual harassment
madarauchiha's review against another edition
As filling as sea foam. I'm left wanting horror having fed none. It's very pretty writing. This book is really, like, white woman oriented. And bland. Where is the fucking? There's lesbians for christ sake. Of course we fuck. And where is the horror? Forgotten in the sea? The most we get is a little body horror and some oh noes DX moments in the ocean. Meh.
No rating because I'm aware that I'm the wrong audience.
If you came here looking for lesbian horror, ehhhhh skip this one. Listen, read this.
▪ “Ghosts don’t speak,” she said to me. “People misunderstand this. They think that when you’re haunted you hear someone speaking but you don’t. Or not usually. Most of the time, if you hear something speaking, it’s not a ghost – it’s something worse.”
This is the most horror you get out of this book. No really.
major blood, body horror, confinement, injuries, medical content, mouth injuries, parasites, parental death, religion catholic, sexism, sexual content, vomit
medium alcohol, animal death, drug abuse, self harm, sexual harassment
minor animal death, religion catholic,
Graphic: Confinement, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, and Vomit
Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Self harm, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Animal death