Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh

21 reviews

anditsreal's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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

2.75

They're humid, prepossessing Homo sapiens with full-sized aortic pumps. That's all I could think of while reading this book. 

I'm a hit or miss kind of person with literary fiction. This one didn't do it for me. Words felt unnecessary and I'm not sure I have much more interest for woman-obsessed-with-woman stories anymore. However, the real-life story that inspired this book sounds fascinating and I'll definitely do more research about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Physical abuse

pbraue13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Toxic friendship, and Infidelity

katyab's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

The historical event that gives the book its title turns out to be a dramatic tack-on at the end, and strangely the only aspect I could properly grasp. The novel really is about one woman's obsession with another (or is she obsessed with the woman's husband? Or both of them, or neither? Is this triangle even a triangle? I was confused). I didn't care about the characters, although the book was hypnotizing in its prose – very lyrical and mesmerising style. I can see why people describe it as a fever dream, as there is a calm, hot veneer with an undercurrent of something very wrong... However, I got the sense that this was just a board on which to pin the weird erotic sadomasochism. Was not sure why anything was happening, nor did I care much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

annatroughton's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

serena_hien's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Sexual content, and Suicide

evavaale's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Self harm, and Sexual content

celticthistle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Body shaming, Infidelity, and Self harm

j_squaredd's review

dark reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, and Sexual content

katewhite77's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

A book to make you stop and think.

I think this is a book where the reader has to look beneath the surface narrative to the mirrored narrative submerged bellow the water line. It is also about appetites of various types, and how trauma can affect both individual. 

I very much enjoyed the language of this novel and can highly recommend the audiobook the narrator does a wonderful job.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death

aliciawithoutkeys's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Sexual content