Reviews tagging 'Death'

Leech by Hiron Ennes

69 reviews

bumblebeefarts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Miscarriage, Infertility, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Pregnancy, and Medical content

Moderate: Rape, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, and Classism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, and Chronic illness

kaylasbewks's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

stars ,, 5.0
cawpile ,, 9.14

this book was outstanding from the completely unique plot, fantastically fleshed out characters and mesmerising writing. it became so much more than i ever expected it to be, i'm still in awe. i will admit that at times i was confused, but by the end of the book i believe i pieced together everything,, even if i haven't, i still loved the experience - the last 25% or so of this book was a rollercoaster of emotions and i couldn't put it down. wow.

i have so many thoughts about this book, 99% of which are positive, but my brain is so frazzled. simply, i'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone who's even remotely interested, but please check the trigger warnings first.

wow. wow? wow. wow. wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Miscarriage, Death, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Gore, Medical content, Violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, and Fire/Fire injury

beccalynnfrank's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Truly did not know what to expect at any time, definitely not a happy ending but a realistic one 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, and Emotional abuse

athenian_frog's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

The book can get very slow but when the horror kicks in it’s usually pretty engaging. My main issue is with the lulls in between, especially in the first half of the book.

BUT think there’s some really interesting reflection from the perspective of such a complex organism that Hiron Ennes includes! That and the character of Émile in general were highlights. The story went in a direction I was really not expecting—in a good way—and the ending was pretty rewarding.

Some of the ideas that strengthen the conclusion that I found in the book—like the value of one’s bodily autonomy—could have been better weaved throughout the book but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

PLEASE READ the content warnings below. Thanks! <3

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Violence, Vomit, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

-the baron’s family (whose mansion is where the majority of the book takes place) generally holds pretty misogynistic beliefs of a woman’s role in the family, specifically that they are “responsible” for having children/a son in particular -a female character has a history of miscarrying, makes one or two dark jokes about it -descriptions of medical procedures that might upset readers including: several instances of needle insertion in various places, sedated/paralyzed patients during a procedure, often without consent, the removal of a parasite fragment from the optic nerve post mortem, descriptions of childbirth - suicide is examined as a possible and very plausible reason that a character dies (via scalpel to the throat) -In the latter half of the book it is implied that a character ends up in an emotionally abusive relationship with a member of the barony. The sex they have (very vague) reads very much as coercive/non consensual because of the power the barony holds over the rest of the people living in the chateau. There are moments of physical abuse as well. - at least two characters vomit, and a couple more have something crawl out of their mouth

chellyfishing's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Death, Body horror, and Violence

cadence99's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

A twisty turny fever dream like read. Liked this overall, though the ending felt a bit lackluster and not in keeping with the rest of the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Ableism, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Medical content

hmstaab's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Body horror, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Physical abuse, Excrement, Infertility, Miscarriage, Colonisation, Death, and Rape

willow_the_wisp's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Infertility, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

eilif_has_no_gender's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is one of those books where you either love it or you hate it. I loved it personally. 

If you are considering this book LOOK AT CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THE BOOK! I personally had to add a lot. 

This story follows a genderless doctor from a strange organization named The Institution. It does't have a name and later in the book are called The Institution. The reason I referred to it with It/It's/Its is because it is a parasite in control of humans. The story follows a woman who was controlled by The Institution. She eventually escapes a long with her nonhuman friend, Emilè (There is a high chance I misspelled that).

The story has characters who are terrible people (Which I personally love. It shows nonantagonists can be terrible people has well) so if you don't like this this book is for sure not for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, and Child death

Moderate: War, Alcohol, and Miscarriage

Minor: Ableism and Death of parent

eb2701's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

While I think this is a very well conceived and well executed book, I found myself disappointed in what it chose to focus on. While it promised to be a complex exploration of identity and bodily autonomy, I found it to be quite cut and dry and even a bit heavy handed with its moral messaging about autonomy. 

while yes, obviously taking people’s bodies is bad, the Institute makes the point that it has to survive too, and needs human hosts to sustain itself. Is it evil to do what you have to to survive? Parasites are just fulfilling their ecological niche. And the book dismisses this question out of hand and doesn’t pick it up again. I would have been much more interested in grappling with that dilemma than so quickly concluding that no, parasitic lifeforms do not deserve to survive under any circumstances. Similarly, when Simone's personality began to assert itself, I found that I would have much rather been spending more time with the doctor in the second half of the book than having to get to know an entirely new protagonist that I found less interesting than sitting with the uneasy state of being one semi-autonomous disposable body in a collective.

 

That said, the prose is excellent and the structure of the book is very strong. I really enjoyed the throughlines of folklore and supernatural imagery, and the subtextual richness of parasitism as metaphor, parallelism both class oppression and the insidious nature of sexual abuse. The overall gothic framework functions perfectly, and the body horror is great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Body horror, Death, and Murder