Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

29 reviews

sarathroughpages's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Vomit, and Cannibalism

Minor: Death

oywiththepoodles's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cannibalism, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual content

nialiversuch's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Abandonment, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Bullying, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

jamieann123's review against another edition

Heavy focus on cannibalism and use of human body matter. The writing is incredibly jarring for the subject matter.
Understand this is the aim of the writer but too much for me-and I am usually a fan of horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Grief, Sexual content, Mental illness, and Body horror

grunbean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

A real mix of stories, all weird, all confrontational, all wonderful. If you are uncomfortable with ideas that are a bit gross it could be a challenge to read. I really enjoy ‘weird’ books, and I was hooked on these stories. My favourites were Life Ceremony and Eating The City.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Death of parent, Ableism, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Vomit, Sexual content, Mental illness, Medical content, and Body horror

aunticles's review against another edition

challenging dark lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

This author was recommended to me by a neurodivergent friend who related to her very strongly. Having read these stories, I can understand that. Being neurotypical, I felt it gave me an insight into that world. I thought the ideas were brilliant but I didn't really enjoy the execution or writing style. The tone throughout is naive, matter of fact, almost bland, and it contrasts starkly with the visceral body horror in some of the stories. I found that the discomfort outweighed the humour in the stories and Life Ceremony was almost too much for me. This collection is definitely worth reading but I can't say I enjoyed the experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Death, Dysphoria, Gore, Medical content, Vomit, and Sexual content

arieslofi's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Gore

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Incest and Pregnancy

lidia7's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

very gross and disturbing

i enjoyed these stories the most: Body Magic, Hatchling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, Excrement, Vomit, and Body horror

Moderate: Stalking, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Animal death, Cancer, and Sexual content

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Eating disorder, and Incest

m4rtt4's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

I have now read all Murata's works that are available in English, and dare I say I have never encountered anything similar; she has such a distinctive style of mixing (feminist) social commentary with gore and body horror, and despite all the nauseating imagery I'm left questioning if our societal norms are wrong after all. Her writing makes me uncomfortable in the same way that Junji Ito's drawings do — so if you like either Murata or Ito, I recommend you'd try the other one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, Death, Sexual content, Excrement, and Body horror

Moderate: Incest, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, and Vomit

katarina_sarmo's review against another edition

medium-paced

5.0

As usual, Sayaka Murata delivers an oh-so weird and oh-so wonderful novel with each of these stories making me rethink my perspective on societal norms.

Murata has a way of using these very creative (if that’s what you want to call it) and perverse scenarios to put into words and comment on the strange unwritten rules that seem to uphold our society. She somehow makes something so disgusting into an utterly normal and unproblematic concept; if you try to explain these stories to somehow who hasn’t read them, you’ll probably be labelled psychotic and sent away. She has turned cannibalism into a warm fuzzy blanket and it is both horrific and deeply thought-provoking.

A fair warning that this collection can be extremely disturbing and uncomfortable at times (or most of the time, to be honest) so if you find that the idea of cannibalism or wearing human hair makes you cringe, maybe stay away. I couldn’t even find content warnings on StoryGraph that cover the content of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Mental illness, and Gore