Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake

7 reviews

maple_dove's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Favorite Quotes:

"Give him to me," Mathilde says, and holds out her arms. The baby reaches for her and gurgles. "I was near when your light came into the world, and I will always sense when it is near."

Little Katharine. Gone as Little Mirabella is gone, and how she mourns them. How all women must mourn the loss of those little girls, relegated to shadow as they grow.

(One of) My Favorite Scene(s):

!!!HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The mist is rising, racing up alongside the dead queens. It swoops up above them and dives back down, swallowing them whole and tearing them apart, spitting wisps of blackness into the sky. Arsinoe and Pietyr freeze as they stare at the battle, the dead queens shrieking, becoming a maelstrom of writhing arms and bared teeth, as the mist wraps around and around them.
The dead queens do not stand a chance. The mist devours. The mist protects. Arsinoe sees the queens of old, hidden inside its depths. She sees Illiann and even Daphne. She feels Mirabella's might as the mist crashes against the Volroy like a thunderstorm. She recognizes Katharine in the sharp, twisting quickness as it slices strands of darkness and casts them off in ribbons. She sees them fight, for her and the island, until all that remains of the dead queens are tatters and ashes floating in the air. 
[...]
"It was them," she says, panting. "Mirabella and Katharine."
"It was them," Pietyr agrees, and knocks his head against the stone. "And now it is finished."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Self harm, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Gore, Body horror, and Torture

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, and Death of parent

grayscale08's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Torture, Violence, War, and Body horror

Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, Child death, Infertility, Suicide, Gore, Confinement, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Classism, Forced institutionalization, and Self harm

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Body shaming, Pregnancy, Animal death, Medical content, and Sexual content

mia_luvsreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Death of parent, and Gore

Minor: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

pageafter_paige's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This final book wrapped up the series better than I had anticipated. I laughed, I cried (twice), and I screamed throughout the story! The character arcs came full circle and really tore my heart out. Even though romance isn’t the focus of the book I am always rooting for Billy and Arsinoe so without the bonus epilogue I would’ve been in limbo. Overall great series and I found this book very fast paced 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Infertility, Torture, Body horror, Grief, Murder, War, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Violence, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, and Confinement

esme_may's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I adored this! I'm so glad I decided to finish this series because it was so much better than the last one. An incredible end to the series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Death, Gore, Blood, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Murder, Self harm, Xenophobia, Confinement, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal cruelty and Sexual content

emily_mh's review

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.75

The best way to sum up my feelings about this book (and this series as a whole, really) is that nothing feels developed enough. It's like a cake. The core elements - the flour, sugar, eggs, etc. - are there, and they're good, but it wasn't put in the oven long enough so everything about it seems underbaked. Like you're about to sneeze and you know it's gonna be a good one, but it never comes. Or a 2D drawing that was meant to be a 3D rendering. 

In terms of specifics, the ending action was pretty good.

Although the most important chapter in the whole book, where Katherine changes allegiance and Mirabella dies, came across as a sketch or an outline, so didn't feel like the momentous event that it was. Mira dying at this point before she could really made an impact also just turned her into a non-character for me.

But apart from that, I don't have much else to say. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, and Self harm

Moderate: Death of parent, Cannibalism, Ableism, Child abuse, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Torture, and Body horror

Minor: Child death, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual content, Infertility, Vomit, Confinement, Medical content, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Pregnancy

Illness, loss of a loved one

ashyq's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Body horror, and Violence