Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

All's Well by Mona Awad

15 reviews

amayakodi's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

"sometimes we wish or terrible things, things we deserve. how could we not wish for them when we deserve them? and sometimes the heavens hear us. something hears us. and our wishes come true. should we feel guilty? of course we shouldn't feel guilty, why guilty? why guilty when we deserve it, when maybe, just maybe it's a question of justice?"

medical misogyny will make you so much of a shell that vindication consumes you whole and you will do everything in your power to make them rue the day. pain must be performed to be taken seriously, but simultaneously, they will accuse you of overperformance, of putting on too much of a show. 

ending is ambiguous, but i think it deserves to be as such. it would not be a problem play without it. on the topic of problem plays, i think deeply about the representation of disability media, in which disabled peoples are relegated to tragic storylines for able bodied characters or as comic relief characters in which viewers are meant to laugh at their pain. forced into the binary of tragedy or comedy, awad asks us (through the conceit of the problem play) to criticize what we see and know of disabled peoples; that maybe, able bodied people need to get the fuck off the stage for once! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, and Body horror

lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Although All's Well is classified as horror, similar to Bunny, but it could be more appropriately categorized under magical realism (or perhaps surrealism), just like Bunny. 

This book confirmed my suspicion that Mona Awad will be an auto-buy author for me. Awad has indeed made it to my list of favorite authors because I have an affinity for the peculiar. 

Articulating my thoughts on Awad's books is always a challenge, despite the excellence of her prose and storytelling. Rating All's Well was difficult as I found the ending slightly underwhelming. I sought more rage and a more unhinged narrative. 

While I rate Bunny higher (I wish I could read that book for the first time again), All's Well is still a good read. It's just so frustrating for me to still not know what Miranda's, the main character of All's Well, mental health issue is, unlike in Bunny when it was clearly schizophrenia. However, maybe I'm overanalyzing and All's Well is merely about the dismissal of women's pain coupled with misogyny, even from women themselves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual content

xbernadette's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Drug abuse

orlagal's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Ableism, Death, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Medical content, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Grief, and Sexual content

sakisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I was thrilled by Mona Awad’s ‘Bunny’ so I thought I would be into this one.

Very bizarre, very intriguing storyline! I didn’t know Shakespeare’s ‘All’s Well’ play at all but could still read Awad’s story. It wasn’t my favourite out of her stories, however I was still HOOKED into this Faver/Miranda dynamic and the way in which women’s pain is always belittled and ignored 😳 ‘Maybe it’s all in your brain’ lit a fire under my ass and made me rage 🔥

3.5 out of 5 stars for me on this one 🥹 Thank you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

marissab's review

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Ableism, Addiction, and Body horror

Minor: Blood, Grief, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

decie's review

dark tense

1.0

something about this book just rubbed me the wrong way. a big part of that was definitely the way disability was talked about/used almost like a horror element in parts....it feels like it's supposed to show the reality of life as a woman with chronic pain, but it just ended up pushing cure rhetoric and framing disabled people as crabby old hags with "dead legs" who are resented by their former loved ones

until they are cured and "back to normal" for the happy ending

 

I am literally begging authors to stop using the magically disabled and tragically disabled tropes in their books. it really shouldn't be this hard.

I also felt like Awad was trying to have an unreliable narrator but made her so unreliable that half of the story was lost. we only needed one sentence from a onlooker's pov to make the entire book make sense, but we didn't get that. instead, we got a bizarre ableist fever dream without any clear messaging. wild.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, and Misogyny

Minor: Alcohol, Physical abuse, and Rape

astronut's review

dark funny 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Drug abuse, Chronic illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Body horror, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

Minor: Death

wrestleacademic's review

dark funny tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Body horror

eisenbuns's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Reading Mona Awad's books requires a certain amount of faith. It is a leap, in a way, to give yourself over to the extreme and the absurd so wholly. Is it worth it? Will I reach the end of the journey and wonder whether the journey even happened? I've certainly felt that way reading literature like this before. Bret Easton Ellis comes to mind. But after reading 'Bunny' and letting myself go along for the insane, quirky, ride, I knew what I was getting into when I started 'All's Well.'

I'm so glad I was able to put aside all of my concerns and preconceptions, and dive into this work. 'All's Well' is a story of magic, of witches, of the fantastical and the mundane. It's also, primarily, a story about living with chronic pain. How it feels to be rendered invisible to professionals and loved ones alike. How it transforms you. 

I think this book is an absolute masterpiece. I loved it even as I hated it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Medical trauma

Minor: Bullying, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness