Reviews tagging 'Violence'

A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock

8 reviews

ilaxaria's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Grief, Confinement, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicide and Blood

Minor: Homophobia and Vomit

txikimandy's review

dark lighthearted 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

A Botanical Daughter is an incredible debut. The prose is lofty like a classic but not difficult; it lends itself to stunning descriptions and wordplay. The twists and turns didn’t fail to surprise me.

The characters are multi-faceted and sympathetic, even as they do highly questionable (at best) things. It’s as if Seymour Krelborn became Dr. Frankenstein.

I adored this book and I highly recommend it. It’s a stunning blend of fantasy and horror, but not dark enough that I couldn’t read it at night.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Murder, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Suicide, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury

renorsomethin's review

dark emotional funny slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Death of parent, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Infidelity, Gore, and Homophobia

Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

thisbookisbananas's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

If I have to put A Botanical Daughter in a category, I would call it a beautiful cozy Gothic horror. This book deals with ideas of  how far a person will go for petty vengeance, what makes a family a family, and love. This book is pretty heavy on fungus related horror. I’d say way more about than What Moves the Dead by T.Kingfisher. So if that isn’t your jam/jelly (pun intended) this isn’t the book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Body horror

bebidocrimes's review

mysterious medium-paced

• 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

4.25

A bit softer than I was expecting but such a delightful read! Medlock entrances with his environments, this greenhouse sounds like another world, so luscious and enticing. I feel like a few things tied up a bit too nicely and the looming consequences to their choices didn't feel like they held much weight.

Salting the earth just being assumed to stop the spread and not seeing anything to contradict that felt like a missed opportunity, and the murders don't seem like they mattered to the community at large so the secret was easily kept.

I wish we'd gotten to see a bit more of Chloe and Jennifer's relationships' early development, but the entanglement in the end was fascinating! Maybe I was looking for a more ambiguous/ominous ending, but overall it was so fun and I'm glad I grabbed it on release day! I never say I *want* a movie adaptation, but please give this to Guillermo del Toro.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Murder, Violence, Blood, Alcohol, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, and Sexual content

Moderate: Gun violence, Medical content, and Body horror

Minor: Suicide and Animal death

alrightlauryn's review

dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.25

Queer (Grumpy x Grumpy) novel that had an interesting plot line, similarities with Frankenstein in time period as well. A big selling point of this book was the genre and it being modern day take on the genre, however I found some parts quite dry and found myself half way through the book knowing the ending. I also didn't find myself falling in love or connecting with any characters.  

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death and Violence

amaranth_wytch's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Blood, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Lesbophobia, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for a copy of this book.

To the Victorian London society, taxidermist Simon and horticulturist Gregor are two odd bachelors living together, but secretly they're much more than friends. When Gregor acquires a fungus that shows signs of intelligence he combines it with a recently corpse. 

Gregor, Simon and their botanical daughter, Chloe along with housekeeper Jennifer form an unconventional family. However can a being such as Chloe be contained and kept secret?

This is a queer, gothic horror, but it managed to funny and cozy at times. Medlock poses many complex ethical and philosophical questions. I really enjoyed this world, and am looking forward to exploring more Medlock's works in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, and Death

Minor: Homophobia