Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Ascension by Nicholas Binge

9 reviews

torismazarine's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Suicide, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Dementia, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Self harm, Ableism, Murder, and Death

Minor: War

There's a lot of talk about religion and faith, the characters argue a lot about it (I'm paraphrasing here, but at some point a charachter says religious people are stupid, others have very strong faith, and for some of them it's fluctuating throughout).

There's also monsters and aliens, that are described extensively. At different points in the story people drown, get frostbite and altitude sickness, which are ways to die not in the content warnings, although reading a book about climbing a mountain the latter two could be guessed.

ambert's review

adventurous dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book made me contemplate death and the afterlife in the exact same way The Iron Giant did as a kid. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Child death, Murder, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Death

Minor: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Death of parent

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

Feel conflicted about the book.
First part grabbed my attention with the setting up of the mystery but I felt like the second half really dragged and the payoff wasn't as satisfying as the build-up made it seem like it would be.

I wish more time had been spent at the end of the novel explaining the aliens/ the seeds/ the leviathans/the death and afterlife/ why the last characters killed themselves etc

I probably would not have finished it if I hadn't been hooked by the mystery. Think there were a bit too many themes to do them all justice

(religion, grief, death/loss, regret, all the science stuff, mountain-climbing, people going mad )

.  I liked the writing style and found it easy to read. Personally I didn't enjoy the extended descriptions of

people losing their minds descending into madness.

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Violence, Body horror, Gore, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

death of a child

pkc's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

I r njoyed the plot here. So much going on, all of it resolved to some extent which I loved. Questions about humanity are explored using this metaphor and while there can never be answers, it was intriguing to ponder them within the setting. If you’re looking for a book with likeable protagonists, personally, I’d swerve this one. You may like Harold but I found him reasonably ineffectual and awful. That being said, I thought the plot was super inventive, adventurous and wild. The mountain as a character was intriguing and made for some epic set pieces 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Child death, Suicide, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Vomit

alireads's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Gun violence, Body horror, Violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Grief, Bullying, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Religious bigotry

honeywine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Gun violence, Gore, Death, Murder, Grief, Body horror, and Forced institutionalization

azrah786's review against another edition

3.5

 **I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

CW: violence, gun violence, injury, blood, murder, death, child death, fire/injury, suicide, body horror, grief
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It has taken me some time to get my head around wording my thoughts for this book because though it was an engaging read it fell a little flat by the end.

A quick read and a good mashup of genres Binge has written a mind-bending story. Told through the letters of a lost scientist - Harold Tunmore – addressed to his niece, we follow the journey he and a group of fellow scientists took when they were sent to explore a bizarre mountain that had randomly appeared in the middle of the Pacific. The writing successfully conveys all the tension of a real life mountain hike as well as the “what the fuck” feel of everything that goes on during the expedition.

The epistolary format and this being represented in the book as a published collection was really clever however, I feel it was also a hinderance the further you read. The lengthy monology descriptions and anecdotes that the narrator was penning for the reader just felt a bit overkill and slowed the story down for me. Particularly with how fast the primary and more intense mountain plot was.

From about midway on towards the end, the narration started to feel a little monotonous and I found I was able to predict some of what was going to happen which lessened my enjoyment of the big twists and reveals.

Though I will say Binge’s writing does well to bring a range of emotions to the page in those segments of personal reflection when he is unpacking the mysterious past of the protagonist. There was also some interesting and thought provoking discussions on the themes of faith vs science, humanity and autonomy.

And so despite being a bit of a miss for me overall I think this story would make a brilliant mini-series.
Final Rating - 3.5/5 Stars 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Murder, Child death, and Blood

ferlintokezeirquizes's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Violence, Suicide, and Death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, and Blood

novelshire's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A man goes missing and is eventually declared dead by his brother and niece. After many years, they discover what became of him; along with a case full of letters he had written to his niece (but never sent) during the time following his initial disappearance. The contents of the letters is astounding and they decide to publish the letters - this forms the basis for the book.

The main character, Harold, is an accomplished man, a former doctor, a scientist and something of an adventurer. He is recruited by a mysterious organisation, along with experts from other fields, to investigate an enormous mountain that has suddenly appeared in the middle of the ocean. But all is not as it seems, time runs strangely, there are ghostly apparitions, and former expedition members can seemingly tell the future.

What follows is a tense, gripping story; part psychological thriller, part speculative science fiction.
The letters reveal Harold's state of mind, the paranoia of all of the party, and the many secrets and mysteries surrounding the mountain. The style of the story means that some of the characters aren't hugely developed but, that also adds to the sense of isolation and suspicion felt by Harold.

As with all mysteries, the reveal is an important factor in overall reading satisfaction. I thought the final twists and turns were interesting but maybe not as much as the rest of the book - I felt like it either needed to be more vague or explored in more depth.

Overall, I think this is a book where the journey was more important than the destination and I enjoyed the gripping journey up this mysterious, mind-bending mountain.

Thank you to Harper Voyager for providing a netgalley review copy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Medical trauma, Death, Body horror, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Grief