Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

15 reviews

shubka's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Blood, War, and Violence

monicaa_d's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I enjoyed this, but it fell in the middle of the road for me. The story moved quickly enough, and had a little bit of mystery and a fairly good allegory for colonialism throughout. I enjoyed the story, but didn't really vibe with the characters. They meet and become best friends between the ages of 9 and 13, ultimately being each other's first love (to the degree that a 13 year old can be in love). Then they're separated for nine years, and the story resumes there. We find out that they haven't forgotten each other, that they still can't think of the other without pain, that every action they've taken in those nine years was shaped by the absence of the other, etc. It's all very sweet and pining and true love, but eventually just felt annoying. Throughout the story they repeat the same pattern of finding and losing one another, and every time they do we get to hear how they can't live without the other, again and again... Maybe I just expected more horror and less pining from a vampire book, but it just didn't do it for me. The story was enjoyable, but I felt like I was just going through the sappy parts to find out what would happen with the rest of the plot, because it's obvious from the start that they're going to get their happy ending. This isn't at the top of my recommendations, but I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it, especially if they're more interested in romance and not so much in horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Blood

Minor: Body horror, Colonisation, Grief, War, and Gore

salemander's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, War, Body horror, and Violence

h4ppycupcake's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

An adventurous romance with lots of tension and thrills. I didn’t find the characters’ journey in overcoming their personal conflict very believable; I wasn’t convinced that their childhood feelings would translate to adulthood after such a long time. In a lot of ways this felt like fan fiction of characters that exist already and unfortunately I as the reader don’t have access to their extensive character history. 

About the ending:

She saves the vampires??????? What the hell is that about??????????? Come on, no way, that’s the dumbest way to end this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Bullying, Death, Blood, Body horror, War, Violence, Child death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

first read of the year! I marked this as started in Dec just to immediately put it down in favor of some Palestine readings so this truly does count! 

The romance was sweet, if a bit fade to black, but the true shine in this book was Nena (super badass), and the folklore. I am a slut for tales and creatures tied to a specific land or people. This delivered that many times over! 

I am also a slut for supernatural creatures as metaphors for how white settlers destroyed and warped the land they stole. this book delivered that quite well. colonialism and environmental devastation are not unrelated; we’re seeing that right now with the species disappearing in hawaii, so I like when authors don’t shy away from it in historical fiction. 

all in all a fun and surprisingly quick read! I didn’t mind the POV switches for once, as it made the Feelings more juicy. will def read more by this author if I can!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, War, Racism, Blood, Colonisation, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Classism, Cursing, Gore, Medical content, and Misogyny

Minor: Death

saltycaramel's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

4.5

This book sucked me in and I honestly forgot about the world while I was in it. This gave me the BEST dark-romantic-gothic vibes, and I just loved the overall story. I liked the pacing and the way the story was flushed out overall more than The Hacienda, so if you weren’t the biggest fan of that I’d definitely say give this one a go. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, War, Blood, and Body horror

strugglecity's review

adventurous mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, War, and Injury/Injury detail

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Toxic relationship, War, Abandonment, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.25

Childhood sweethearts Nena, a rancher’s daughter and curandera, and Néstor, a vaquero and soldier, torn apart by class and by a terrible incident, must reunite to fight for their land and their lives in an 1840s Mexico invaded not only by colonizing Yankees, but vampires as well in this genre-defying work of historical fiction, horror, and romance. I do wish the balance was more horror over romance, however I deeply enjoyed the historical setting!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.25

A historical Mexican romance mixed with effective body horror, this novel is anchored by its central characters chemistry and journey towards harnessing their potential, despite their circumstances. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Body horror, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual content, War, Racism, Alcohol, Hate crime, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death

A lot of the racial tension is between the Mexican settlers and the American colonizers going South of the border to claim land, as well as the tension of abandoning someone you love over a huge misunderstanding.