Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

17 reviews

lyssylyssy's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Body horror, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Outing, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual harassment, Homophobia, and Sexual content

peggymay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Abortion, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Sexual content, Body horror, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Murder, Homophobia, Misogyny, Classism, Sexual assault, Violence, Drug use, Racism, Sexism, Addiction, Cultural appropriation, and Body shaming

jaimc's review against another edition

mysterious

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia and Racial slurs

dewugging's review

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Blood, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Death, and Slavery

imds's review

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Racism, Body horror, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Abortion, and Pregnancy

caitlinemccann's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Racism, Racial slurs, Blood, Death, and Suicide

Minor: Addiction and Animal cruelty

hendrixpants's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Homophobia

jordieisfarrell's review

challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

This is great if you are really into magical realism and an almost strictly character-driven story. For me, it was hard to get into and once I did I was rocking with it for a while, and then towards the end, it just lost my interest again. I get what the author was trying to do but it just fell kind of flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Gore

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

I love Nghi Vo's novellas (When The Tiger Came Down The Mountain is one of my favourite books) but this book did not work for me. I'm not surprised to find in the author's note that chronologically this is their first novel because it really does feel like a debut. There is not enough story to sustain a full length novel, but somehow the book still feels long. The writing style is also extremely fanficcy (the "all [noun] and [noun]" physical descriptors, the characters making parenthetical interjections throughout for no reason) and the romances are silly and over the top. None of the prominent characters are that interesting, and the book does that annoying thing from historical fiction where the character lays out the hardships of a certain setting and then goes, "but not me though!" as if they're better than all the real people who went through those situations.

I will say though that the world was very interesting (even if we didn't get to see a lot of it) and the way the magic was used to emphasize real world issues was mostly well done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Drug use, Child abuse, Death, Addiction, Alcohol, Homophobia, and Infidelity

kathleencoughlin's review

dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.25

Siren Queen, like the Vo's other works, is fantastical, dark, cinematic, and (most importantly) queer. It also brings a nuanced perspective on the intersection of race and gender is a specific historical context. I never felt like I totally understood the magic, but honestly it just adds to the vampy, mysterious  vibe

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Body horror, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Murder, Abortion, Confinement, Violence, and Outing