Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez

16 reviews

danycatreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Una colección de cuentos muy difícil de leer en el mejor sentido posible. Muchos cuentos de terror clásico como casas abandonadas, o apariciones y desapariciones repentinas, pero lo que une a todo el libro son las voces de mujeres, creando personajes difíciles y complejos. No todos los cuentos me encantaron, pero comprendo a lo que la autora quería llegar, y para mí eso es suficiente. Están hechos con tanta delicadeza que no puedo darle otro rating que no sea casi cinco estrellas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Medical trauma, Classism, Medical content, Body horror, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Self harm, Mental illness, Hate crime, Death, Gore, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Grief, and Fatphobia

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.75

Me gustaron bastante los cuentos que tenían más matiz de horror clásico como “La casa de Adela”, “El patio del vecino” y “Bajo el agua negra”, pero en general una buena colección de historias donde el verdadero horror es lo que voluntariamente no queremos ver. El abandono social, la desidia, el desdén a lo diferente, la pobreza, la impunidad, la misoginia y el sexismo, los prejuicios hacia las trastornos mentales y la discapacidad, la avaricia de los ricos, las oligarquías y las transnacionales. El verdadero miedo que da leer esto es que convivimos día a día con estos fantasmas que son nuestros líderes, jefes, vecinos, compañeros de trabajo y no hacemos nada para exorcisarnos. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Rape, and Vomit

burnyayhayley's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

This collection is truly impressive. There are some seriously disturbing images and each story achieves a strong sense of unease by the end, sometimes in ways, I did not expect to actually find uneasy. 

The author has a very in-depth grip on characterization and is consistently excellent at giving us the correct amount of information so that all the characters feel real and important and tangible, but when you are finished you still feel slightly robbed of closure, which in the context of horror short fiction, is perfect. 

However, I knocked off a star because I am not feeling so impressed by the writing or the content that I am overwhelmed—I just feel a normal amount of impressed, if that makes sense. It's excellent short fiction, but it did not always hit me where I hoped it would. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Eating disorder, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Trafficking

moonlighthepburn's review against another edition

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Abortion, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Self harm, and Violence

noel_b's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A creepy collection of stories that are unsettling, sometimes disgusting, and always, always vivid. Every story goes to a different part of Argentina and explores a different version of life at its margins.

Most of the stories have a gothic feel to them and the prose (at least in Spanish) managed to describe my home country in a way that felt both familiar and alien. Comforting and disturbing. The author knows exactly how to latch on to the shadows we tend to look over, and make them deeper, darker, impossible to ignore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Grief, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Self harm, Police brutality, Misogyny, and Mental illness

pseudoliterature's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

Story collections tend to be a bit tedious if you read them wrong, the magic trick here is to read not more than 2 stories in one sitting. I've seen people finish these type of books in a day (if you like to binge read short stories you do you, I applaud your ability, I just have adhd), and i think short stories work better when you have a clear mind, you have to take a small pause between stories or they might blend in your mind. Read two stories, go for a cup of tea, watch a YouTube video, and then continue for another two chapters. 
Besides that, I had a great time, the atmosphere of this book is so familiar to me, i grew up in a very similar place that some people in this book and I have to tell you, the amount of anxiety i had thanks to those stories was more than I expected.
I wouldn't categorise this book as horror or a thriller, it's more of a tense suspense leaning read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm