Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth

16 reviews

alibader's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year which is what makes this especially disappointing. The plot and pacing were all over the place, it felt as though the story didn't really start until 300 pages in and the beginning was very slow. The ending felt rushed and several moments throughout I found myself rereading a chapter because things weren't explained. 

The only aspect that saved this book and makes me want to pick up the sequel is the characters, I thought they were very entertaining to read about and the romantic buildup was well written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Stalking, Trafficking, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Grief and Gun violence

Minor: Body horror, Medical content, Murder, Racism, Suicide, and Vomit

morganphoenix's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, and Murder

camy_1911's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

This is a great book about a murder mystery set in a faerie world with a wlw main couple, a mlm main couple, non-binary/gender fluid rep. One of the main characters Nausicaä is super sassy and sarcastic. Plenty of funny scenes and pining. Additionally, the author has added content warnings at the start of the book.
Also great pop culture references 😄

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Body horror, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

booksthatburn's review

I love Fae and Greek mythology, so when I realized this was going to give me Tisiphone and the High Court all in one book I was intrigued. Ultimately I’m stopping because it feels like it’s trying to do too much, and by trying to remember the many characters and track the complex blend of two already massive paradigms/pantheons... it got to be overwhelming. The Furies are great, and the Furies plus the Faerie Courts would be really cool, but the Furies, the Greco-Roman creation myth, complex systems for inheritance, political machinations, a serial murderer (or murderers), and the marginalization of the faeries (which are different from the Fae), and the persecution of the Ironborn (which could variously be considered Fae, Faerie, or human?)... it’s a lot. It would be a lot for even a trilogy to establish gradually, it begs for the room to have major details conveyed simply at first and then expanded, distorted, and recontextualized over the course of two books minimum. You can do really cool narrative things with “knowing” something then finding out your information was wrong and it changes how you think about what came before. Here things were established, rebutted, and adjusted so quickly I’m not even sure if they were supposed to be changes at all. I made it just over a third of the way through and I feel overwhelmed by the world and underwhelmed by the plot.

My one regret by not finishing this is I won’t know how things resolve for Tisiphone, but there’s too much extraneous stuff around her very interesting backstory for me to get fully into this one thing I like.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Body horror and Suicide

Full CWs provided from the Author’s Note. TWs may be incomplete. CW for anger, arson, blood/gore, body horror (minor), death of a child, depression, disownment, divorce, drug use/addiction, grief/grieving, human trafficking, poverty, psychopathy, stalking, suicide (past, off-page), suicidal ideation, toxic relationship/manipulation, trauma/PTSD, racism, violence/gun violence. TW for Harry Potter reference (page 169).

irlchaosdemon's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Trafficking, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexism and Misogyny

victoria_tsonos's review

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

Minor: Body horror