Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

19 reviews

jesshaleth's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.25

I understood about 65% of this book. Read 100% of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement, Child death, and Rape

pedanther's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, War, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Rape

Moderate: Body horror, Colonisation, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, Torture, and Xenophobia

Minor: Ableism, Drug use, Gun violence, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, Classism, and Cursing

m3lwar3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, War, and Murder

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Grief, Genocide, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Murder, Mental illness, Gun violence, Death, and Colonisation

Minor: Gaslighting, Cursing, and Blood

bea_evans's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Very confusing book. Strange world, hard to know what was going on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Rape, Blood, Death, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Gun violence

Moderate: Torture, Suicide, and Murder

sofipitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

I struggled a little orienting to the world in the beginning, and that is on purpose, but a lot of what is supposed to keep your attention are these large military space battles, which isn't necessarily my favorite thing. But the end when things make it all come together is excellent. It also contains an interesting and nuanced portrayal of colonialism and the subtle/cultural ways a colonizing force can take power as well as horrible war crimes. I think if the Texicalaan series is the cultural aspect and Baru Cormorant is the brutality, this book is the most realistic for how well it captures both

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, and War

Moderate: Dysphoria

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

2.0

can't tell if I just have no brain power at the moment or if the worldbuilding and plot legitimately are never explained in a way that makes sense. want to maybe give it another shot in the future to see if my feelings change, but for now, just kind of impenetrable

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Death, Murder, Gore, and War

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Rape

Minor: Child death, Torture, Sexual content, Suicide, Ableism, Transphobia, and Dysphoria

anna_hepworth's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

In short: I loved it, and I want more people to read it. 

In long: I've heard a lot of good things about this series, but none of them prepared me for how much I was going to love this story, how invested I was going to be in how the complex strands of politics and warfare across time and space are woven together. 

While the plot is good, and the characterisation is impressive, what held me in this story was the world-building, and the way that the writing slowly exposes it. Yoon Ha Lee has developed a mathematics and a magic that are one and the same, and that influence everything that happens in the story. 

Difficult parts of the story: The sheer numbers of sacrificial deaths, and the fact that just to maintain the government system, torture is a necessity. Fortunately the torture is only referenced, but the sheer numbers of senseless deaths do happen as necessary parts of the story. 

If you are someone who usually doesn't like complex political shenanigans and the logistics of war, it may still be worth reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, War, and Body horror

Minor: Torture

Details on the body horror:

The soldier class have 'formation instinct', which reads as a brainwashing mechanism that means that the person no longer has control of their own body. There is also possession of one character by the consciousness of another as an important part of the plot

bluejay21's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and War

Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual assault

reebeee's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Good book if you enjoy sci-fi warfare and military strategy—as other reviews mention, it requires a tolerance for a wide array of made-up terms. Also as other reviews have noted, Cheris could have used some more development—we don’t get much of a backstory, or motivation, or relationships for her. She’s mostly a foil for Jedao and a stand-in for the reader in her reactions. She’s not annoying though, and I appreciate that one of her defining features is loyalty, which is fun to play with when so many narratives start with rebellious protagonists.

The side characters are vivid and interesting, but ultimately don’t play large or long-lasting roles in the narrative

not least because practically all of them die at the end of the book

. I appreciated the way that Lee emphasized the brutality of war and the abruptness of death—some of the passages reminded me of the Iliad in that sense.

But a book is a narrative, after all, and it would be nice for at least one interesting side character other than Kujen to have lived. Not every side character has to be gun-fodder to demonstrate the futility of war, and any plot- or world-building potential of characters like Nerevor, Vahenz, and Zai remains unused.

I enjoyed this book's premise and characters, and I'll probably end up reading the sequels, but in the end, Ninefox's potential was more promising than its actuality. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal death

confusedmuse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide

Moderate: Body horror, Dysphoria, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Confinement, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, Self harm, and Torture