Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica

335 reviews

mcplen's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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If you can’t deal with body horror, look the other way. This book is very strange and disturbing. It’s the first of Bazterrica’s I’ve read, and it may be the last. I felt like the book was building to something bigger, something unexpected, but the ending felt predictable and mildly disappointing, and fell flat for me. I was hoping for some bold message, but it never revealed itself to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Physical abuse, Self harm

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gore, Rape, Blood

Minor: Animal death

swordhearteds's review against another edition

2.0

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

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While this author is a clearly very talented writer, I felt like a lot of the concepts in this book we have seen before in recent years — The Handmaid's Tale and The Last of Us were two examples that kept coming to my mind — climate-induced apocalypse spurred into an endless dystopia with a heavy dash of twisted misogyny and religious cults.  The way the story was told was in the style of forbidden diary entries of our main character, and I think the stylization alone was very gripping and fun just because some pages could cut off, it wasn't entirely linear storytelling, etc. 

While the story itself was relatively engaging because of the fast pace, the style and the setting, the characters themselves were pretty formless beyond one or two character traits and by the end we still didn't know a lot about them. Honestly, I almost feel like this not-quite-novella could've been a short story instead. While the reader should have felt some relief that

the main character had effectively wrought the end of a horrifically abusive religious cult

, I found myself wondering what we were supposed to take away in the end, if anything. 

I took off a full star for

on page murder of a cat and an unexpected on page rape scene

because I can and I hated that!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death

moveslikebucky's review against another edition

5.0

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual assault

yilliun's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent

madisonrosehager's review against another edition

2.5

dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Diverse cast of characters: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

readnrunml's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense fast-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: No

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Brutal, poetic, horrifying 

love?

story about a woman in a convent-like society in a post apocalypse world. She meets a newcomer and reflects on her past life when she was wandering. I couldn't put this book down! A short and fast read although I wanted it to last!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Rape, Violence, Injury/Injury detail

though it's pretty gory it is hopeful in the end. I hope this is a first book in the series! The ending death(s) we're not explicitly known.

nathiddles_106's review against another edition

3.25

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Diverse cast of characters: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Gaslighting

lisacanteven's review against another edition

4.0

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This was unexpected in many ways. Years after life seems to end, there is a group called the Sacred Sisterhood who live safely sequestered away from the world. There is a hierarchy that helps the women remain passive until things start to unravel with the arrival of a new woman. This is all portrayed through the journal of the narrator. There are no chapters because this is completely written by the narrator, which made it very different than most books. I usually would hate this, but the pacing worked so well. At the halfway point things started to make sense and I really enjoyed the ride.

I wouldn't compare this to Tender is the Flesh. Not much about it besides the genre is similar. Both are horror and both explore the horrors with which our world is headed for. The depravity is still there, although in The Unworthy it is more subtle than TITF. 

Does the dog die?

In this book the dog (cat in this case) does die, and it is a bit traumatic so prepare yourself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Blood, Excrement, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

animebloodqueen's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This book hit me so strongly. It's not an easy read that's for sure so definitely check the trigger warnings before reading but if your able please do read it! Had me crying in parts and kinda of hopeful by the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy

vlkyre's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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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i knew this book would break me after lucia’s miracle. i cried so hard at one point that i had to get up and clean my cat’s litter box just to make me not think of what happened.
“Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grâce, le Seigneur est avec vous. Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, Pregnancy