Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

25 reviews

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

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reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I had trouble finishing this book. It was just so boring to me. There were never any super exciting moments. 

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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: Complicated

Dit boek heeft echt indruk gemaakt. Ik kocht hem met hele hoge verwachtingen,  maar veel mensen om me heen vonden hem toch niet zo goed. Hierdoor waren mijn verwachtingen toch iets gezakt, maar ik denk dat dit boek toch echt wel iets voor je moet zijn. Het boek is echt heel mooi geschreven en bevat enorm veel mooie quotes. Ik heb het boek geannoteerd met tabs en daardoor kwam ik er goed in. Ik denk dat je je tijd moet nemen voor dit boek, zodat je hem echt tot je kan nemen. Je moet dit boek niet ingaan met de verwachting dat hem zomaar uit hebt. Ik vond namelijk niet dat hij enorm snel weglas. De schrijfstijl is eerder mooi dan snel. 

Het verhaal is erg uniek en ik vond het heel sterk dat het verleden en het heden worden afgewisseld.  Ik het begin vond ik dit random, maar daarna werd duidelijk waarom hier voor gekozen is. Ik vond dit een sterk concept. Ook het einde vond ik prachtig. Het was mooi om te zien dat het niet een definitief einde was. Ik denk wel dat het boek iets korter had gekund. Heel af en toe voelde het een beetje als een herhaling van wat er eerder al was gebeurd.

Ik raad dit boek in ieder geval zeker aan en ik ben blij dat dit ons boekenclub boek was van deze maand.

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense

Wow! I'm definitely having a wonderful but heavy book hangover with this story. Wow! 

"Forever is composed of Nows." –Emily Dickinson

Breathtaking, so original and refreshing. There are not many writers like this. This is an artist inspired and expertly crafting their divinely enlightened vision with hard-earned technique, intentional deviation, and the mark of an experienced master delighting in their gift. 

Powerfully vivacious, perilous, petty, yet profound, visceral and cerebral. As Goodreads friend and book connoisseur Corinne mentioned, this is a book you want to swim in; drink in every page and slide through its depths, wade in its shallow pools of slow respite and lovely landscapes, crash through its waves of eternally high stakes and frivolous human-ness, plummet into its abyss until the strange and mythical became a mirrored skyscape of stars and monsters and to blissfully coast on your back in a wordsmith's salty-sweet ocean.

Fabulous character creation and excellent pacing. I was astounded at the author's ability to keep a timeline of hundreds of years beautifully seamless, despite constantly jumping backwards, forwards, looping, sidestepping and ambling through switchbacks. Most books lose me with this writing style, especially in audio, but this was exquisitely done! 

I loved the mantra-like theme of endless time and yet still there is love and there are new and beautiful things about life to discover everyday. It all comes at the high price of experiencing suffering, despair, hunger, anguish, poverty, loneliness, madness, decay, panic, disease, grief, fleeting time and infinite evil, yes. Yet it is still worth every glorious second of happiness. Still worth being alive. Still worth experiencing. Still worth it.

Julia Whelan does a fantastic job at delivering with emotion and sincerity. She doesn't necessarily command a large variety of accents or characters, but her cadence, authenticity and tone are just as effective and transporting. 

P.S. (And the food! I could feel the flavors on my tongue, the descriptions were a treat unto themselves! This was anime-rendered food in all its glory but with words only!)


P.S.S. (1 tiny pet peeve, filigree and wolfish. I feel like these words are good thesaurus-ware and I do enjoy the lovely variety, but these two words were used A LOT. Like you can just say gold now, we get it. Nope, there it is again. And again. And again. Ok maybe you just have a new favorite word now. And again.)

CW: Multiple sex scenes, mostly but not all consensual, largely non explicit, period misogyny, critical and familial religious themes including Catholicism, Judaism, Paganism and the occult, violence, substance abuse, unglamorous perspectives of historical figures, controversial historical events including war, some mild body horror, swearing and classism

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kelisabeth's profile picture

kelisabeth's review

5.0
adventurous emotional hopeful fast-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

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was 100 pages too long. It was really dragging at the end.
I'm also not a huge fan of the "book in a book" concept. Too on the nose.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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: Complicated

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