Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh

6 reviews

caroisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The title alone had me interested in this book. It's right up my alley in terms of deranged female narrators taking us through an unsettling ride. 

The story shifts between Elodie's POV as a baker's wife, and her letters to her friend Violet. It starts plain and quite boring, unravels very slowly, and then drops the plot twist over a few pages in a nightmarish daze. 

The main theme is obsession, the need to live as someone else, and steal their life, their love, their intimacies. It's a heavy focus on masochistic, degrading fantasy, born from boredom, neglect, and Elodie's invisibility as a woman and sexual being. 

The writing is one long fever dream that gets more twisted and confusing as you go. It was hard for me to find footing, which is probably purposeful. Even the time period was hard for me to figure out. This kind of verbose, vague inner monologue writing style often loses me, but give it a try if you're into that, as well as really demented characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Blood, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Infidelity, Torture, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

ariparip's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.75

TL;DR: extremely slow; horny, but not in the fun way; dark and descriptive, inching towards profundity without ever getting there. 

I was so excited to read this book and was so disappointed. It is extremely slow. The audiobook is only 5 hours and I listened on 1.25 speed but it still took me over a month to finish. I kept reading thinking the pace might pick up and because I was interested in the characters, but the prose was flowery without real substance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Sexual content, Murder, Death, Body horror, and Toxic friendship

capacitorofflux's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

The character of Violet reminded me a lot of Indigo from “The Last Tale of The Flower Bride” which reads similarly to this. Despite being a short book, most of the first half or even the first 2/3 seems unnecessary.

A chilling, mad tale based on a real life event.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Blood, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

bronzeageholly's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

There were incredibly sculpted moments in this book, but the majority of the pacing was not for me. Despite the short length, I found it difficult to keep going and often had to convince myself to come back to it with the thought that there might be another brilliantly written section coming up. I saw it described as a “fever” and I think that fits it perfectly - the highs and lows of temperature. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes beautifully crafted characters who it’s hard to wholly like or hate. 

The main character experiences a lot of obsessive thoughts around sex, bodies, eating, and violence, and I would not recommend this book to anyone who might find this triggering.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

misskatz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

madamelacy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The cursed bread almost seems quite peripheral until towards the end of the book. However, this is a gripping tale of a woman who becomes infatuated with a couple who move into the village. Disturbing, bizarre things start to happen and hilarity does not ensue. Highly recommend. Read trigger warnings though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship