Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Mehr als das by Bettina Abarbanell, Patrick Ness

19 reviews

emory's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm not sure how much of my feelings about this book are because of me and how much of them are because of the writing itself. I definitely went into this super blind, and was not expecting the whole

'surprise! we're in the matrix!'

development, and I wasn't fond of that direction for the plot. It made me drag my feet continuing to read it. That part's on me, though, as it says on every online review page that it's science fiction and young adult. 
It does tie in to one of my main complaints about the book, though. The prose was alright, if trying too hard to sound like slam poetry at times, but the plot could not seem to make up it's mind about whether to lean into the speculative science fiction or a poetic reflection. We never get enough explanation about the former and never enough exploration into the latter, which leads to a lackluster ending and grandiose conclusions without the writing effort to back it up. 

Seth's constant questioning of reality serves no purpose except a wink wink nod to the fact that we're reading a book and to provide a convenient ending. An ending in which the main revelation, "life means never knowing what we're doing", a personally dissatisfying platitude, never gets any thoughtful prose dedicated to it and leaves even more questions for the reader. Maybe life is meant to leave major unanswered questions, but I'm unconvinced that a narrative should. 
Not to mention that the book doesn't even really hold up it's title. Towards the end, when the characters start to be shoehorned into their philosophical chit chat, Seth has a revelation about his suicidal ideation and how he feels about his life. The problem is that none of the discussion about what life means and what is left for them makes much sense. It's a commendable effort, and I'm not trying to say it's a horrible book or that I hated reading it; however, the conclusions have nothing to back them up. The characters talk in circles about the meaning of life. We get no justification about why Tomasz and Regine don't get the kind of "more" that Seth seems confident he will be able to find. Even the sweet little moment about friendship has little to nothing to back it up; they've known each other for about 3 days, and have been fighting for most of it. But suddenly they have a wonderful revelation that their amazing friendship is the point of life? That the broken world they live in isn't awful?

. 
Again, I don't have all negative things to say about this book. The plot was enjoyable--just a bit empty. The writing was a bit ornate at points, but it was fitting for the hopelessness innate to the main character at points. The descriptions were theatric and vivid, and to be able to hold attention while the entire first part of the book is a single character living in an empty wasteland is no small feat. 
Mainly, I just wish More Than This had had more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child death, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Outing, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Grief, Abandonment, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Fatphobia

A black character on a few occasions voices something fatphobic or antiblack she expects the other characters to say to her, even though ostensibly this doesn't need to be in the narrative at all, so that's a weird choice on the authors part. Additionally this is definitely not something to read if you're not in the headspace to deal with something akin to simulation theory or that the world is fake.

ashleesbookcollection's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Homophobia

phoehems's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Ok so the beginning was very interesting. Sometimes a bit repetitive, but intriguing.

There was no one for Seth to interact with for a big chunk of the beginning. And that was interesting.

The flashbacks/dreams were also very well written. 
Regine and Tomasz are amazing. They are deep interesting characters. Regine's personality keeps you guessing about her background. Tomasz is just so endearing. All the characters have tragic backstories.

This book is literally the Matrix. On a basic level, the Driver is the robots etc, 'real life' is Zion, Regine and Seth... Trinity and Neo? Does that make Tomasz Morpheus? Anyway, there's nothing in this story that I didn't 'know' from the Matrix. Yet somehow I still didn't know what was going to happen next. Well written!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Alcoholism

armontheroad's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Patrick Ness never misses! I went into this not knowing anything, and I’m so glad I did. After figuring out this is not just a hard-hitting contemporary novel, my reading experience just got better and better. This was gut-wrenching and beautiful. I loved our main characters, the apocalyptic setting, and the ending. Everything about this was great! Wish I had known the content warnings beforehand because this book was graphic, although it was all handled well. I will say, it made me slightly uncomfortable the way one of our characters was written, however, it is not my voice you should be listening to when it comes to that rep. I highly implore you to go look at reviews from Black readers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Outing, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Gore, Body horror, Grief, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Car accident, Child abuse, and Murder

ophelia_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I am awash with emotion. It is wonderful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Violence and Gore

aviery's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Grief, Gore, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Cursing, Drug use, and Fatphobia

entanglednovels's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Wow. What an ending. This is actually the first Patrick Ness book I've read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm glad I went into this not knowing a lot. Definitely an oldie but a goodie. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Homophobia

plumpaperbacks's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This is undoubtedly one of the slowest, most confusing books I’ve ever read. That being said, I like what Ness did with this novel. He created complex characters and an intriguing world where literally nothing is as it seems. You never know exactly what’s going on, and for every answer you get, there are at least five new questions.

While the intrigue was maintained, I won’t lie: sometimes, the slow pacing was off-putting. However, the desire to know what the fudge was happening paired with the extremely short chapters kept me reading. I also quite liked Regine and Tomasz.

Thank you, Erika, for pushing me to read this for the last couple of years. I’m glad I finally did. More Than This is better than the Chaos Walking trilogy, even if half the time, I had no clue what was real and I never knew what to expect. Now I can recommend it alongside you. It’s a twisted story, but one that’s worth the read.

Representation

• queer protagonist and side character in a m/m relationship (occurs prior to the story and in flashbacks)
• Black fat side character

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Kidnapping, Body shaming, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Bullying, Fatphobia, and Sexual violence

erenrinren's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Bullying

Child Kidnapping, Brain Damage

A child is kidnapped, the main character’s brother and receives some brain damage. Seth feels guilty that he might of caused it.

Death; hell/punishment

Seth believes he has gone to hell and/or is being punished for his actions in life

Forced LGBTQ+ Coming-Out

Seth is forced out of the closet when some-one spreads an image around at school of him and another guy. He is bullied, which is part of his reasoning for committing suicide.