Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín

2 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

This book takes place in a reality in which Ireland is basically cut off from the rest of the world and at some point during adolescence, you will disappear and be teleported to a hellscape  called the Greylands (for 3 minutes in our time but it'll feel like hours to you) in which you'll be hunted by an intelligent race of creatures and you better hope they don't catch you.

Our main character is Nessa, a 14 year old girl who is disabled from a history of polio. Although she attends a school designed to train young people to survive, she knows there's not much hope for her to make it when shes "called" due to her disability - but she damn well is going to do her best.

This book was excellent. Nessa is a great character. It's a lot of fun watching her adapt. All the side characters are interesting. The worldbuilding is fun. The greylands are terrifying. While the characters in this book are young, the themes are actually fairly mature and the horror is scary. There's some serious body horror here and it's a lot of fun. This book could be enjoyed by all ages.

Something this book does that's really fun is that everytime one of Nessa's peers are "called" and vanish to the greylands, we get a chapter with the POV from their perspective as they fight for survival. Anyone who just liked the games portion of The Hunger Games will love this (it's more horror but a similar feel). 

You seriously feel the danger in this book. The stakes are high. We care about the characters. It's stressful. It's fun. I loved every second of this.

The ending was fantastic. 

Will I read the sequel? Honestly, I don't know if I will. I quite enjoyed how this one ended. Although the ending doesn't answer all our questions, the beauty of horror is that we don't need to understand everything in order to appreciate it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Ableism, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Gore, Torture, and Stalking

Minor: Pregnancy and Confinement

This is not an extreme horror novel so things are pretty mind. There's some good ol body horror in the nightmare realm that is the grey lands. There's an attempted semi-sexual assault scene between some characters but it's mild.

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Bullying, Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Cannibalism, Confinement, Colonisation, Sexual harassment, Excrement, Genocide, Grief, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Sexual content