Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

90 reviews

bbygirl21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I was really close to marking this book as a DNF because the Act I of this book was incredibly boring to me until the last two scenes/chapters of it. I hadn't wanted to pick up this book at all until about scene 11-12 of Act I. 

But I am so glad that I pushed through, because from Act II until the end had me hooked. I was feeling all the emotions with this book once things started to pick up more.

This was an incredible read over I got into it. I loved the characters, faults and all. Aside from Richard. I don't think I could ever like him, but I think that's kinda the point, your not meant to like him.

The epilogue of this book got me though. I was close to tears several times throughout this book, but the epilogue was what got me. It's such a bittersweet ending. I'd for sure recommend, but like I said the first act was incredibly boring and difficult to get through for me. But once you get through that the book is great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Murder, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Eating disorder, Medical content, Suicide, and Vomit

caseyreads998's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

it's not bad but the secret history&saltburn do it far better

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Drug use

Minor: Eating disorder and Domestic abuse

taylorr1018's review against another edition

dark emotional 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, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Body horror, and Blood

It’s a murder mystery of sorts. A character is killed in a gory way.

paniquemecanique's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The dark academia equivalent to the glee club :
• gay nerds
• bullies
• all sleeping with one another
• kind of a cult
• powerful blonde female teacher who has favors their most cruel students

I loved this book. It was so addictive and compelling. I loves the atmosphere and being I oliver's manic head and I am going to miss it. Maybe not the most crazy complex intricate plot but I don't mind. It made it accessible.
Worth the hype

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Body horror, Alcohol, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

geerbeer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Heerlijk boek. Zou 5 sterren krijgen als het niet zóveel Shakespear was. Ik vind het heel vet gedaan, maar mijn Engels en kennis van Shakespear is niet goed genoeg om alles écht goed te begrijpen.

Ik houd wel echt van de meta dingetjes, dat de hoofdstukken geschreven zijn als aktes e.d. en ook hoe Shakespear-drama het allemaal is. Super goede en mooie world building en de karakters ook allemaal voldoende uniek om goed te kunnen volgen 😊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Suicide, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Murder, Death, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Blood, Cursing, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Infidelity, and Body horror

skelleybean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Mental illness, Death, Murder, Alcohol, Cursing, Grief, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Gaslighting, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Violence

mdwsn27's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Death, Blood, Body horror, Alcohol, and Addiction

Minor: Blood

lexnicole's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Blood, Physical abuse, Violence, Body shaming, Addiction, Death, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

gray_ghost's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Body horror and Bullying

rinku's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

If We Were Villains makes me wonder once more if dark academia is maybe just not my genre. Just like with other books, the characters were so tiresome with their pretentiousness and overacting over small things. Additionally, the internalized misogyny annoyed me a lot, and I just don’t care for Shakespeare lol. 

I don’t have too much to say about the story since the book felt more character-driven to me, but I didn’t really like the little plot we had. The story follows Oliver, an acting student, who’s part of an acting class where new tensions between the students arise. The acting scenes were probably my favorite part of the novel. Richard was also a great antagonist since he was really creepy. 

But I had my problems with the writing itself. The cheap foreshadowing annoyed me just like the fact that some interesting things about the story are just told, like Oliver’s application. The pacing felt a bit off to since, for example, the premiere of the play happened a bit too fast. After the murder, it got more interesting, especially seeing how they tried to hide it. Sadly, it was quite predictable who the murderer was, just like it was predictable that

Oliver would sacrifice himself for James

. 

Another thing I noticed in every dark academia book yet is depicting an unhealthy relationship towards studying. Characters risk their (mental) health for their studies and teachers bullying students is justified to get them ahead. I don’t know, things like these always feels a bit neoliberal to me. 

One of the biggest problems I had with the story was with the characters. We’re introduced to a main cast of seven characters at the beginning and most of them are really flat or don’t even have any character trait, especially the women, making them feel interchangeable. For example, Alexander’s traits are that he’s gay and a drug addict. But there’s one trait they share: They’re really pretentious, I see where The Atlas Six got its inspiration from. Everyone’s overacting at the smallest things. I was furthermore annoyed how the characters drink and take drugs all the time just to show how edgy they are. 

Other reviewers said that before, but it’s unbelievable that this book is written by a woman since the female characters are written so badly. Meredith is always reduced to her looks, no matter the scene. Oliver is always staring at her, claiming that it’s some biological urge(??), that’s a really weird thing to say. Additionally, he says that “we all have called her a slut before”, which made me uncomfortable as well. I don’t know anything about her as a person, just like with the two other female characters of the group. In general, I noticed quite a lot of internalized misogyny, saying that women always gossip and stuff like his. Besides them, the other study fields are also depicted in such a cliché way that it feels like only the aesthetic and vibes matter. 

And how is this book tagged as “queer” and “lgbt”? The representation is atrocious with the only (canon?) queer character being promiscuous and threatening to rape his male friends as a joke, wtf. Without saying too much, the other reps felt just like queerbaiting to me if I’m honest because their “romance” (?) is going nowhere.  

If We Were Villains shows me again that Goodreads can’t be trusted lol. Neither the 4.2-star rating nor the queer tags are justified for this book. I guess I’ll have to read <i>The Secret History</i> one day to find out if at least the origins of dark academia are enjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Blood, Violence, Addiction, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Suicide, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, and Sexual content

Minor: Eating disorder and Vomit