Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

77 reviews

astronut's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Body horror, and Blood

amy_wolczyk's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, War, Torture, and Kidnapping

yavin_iv's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Homophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Car accident, Drug use, and Grief

printzgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

 Plot: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Worldbuilding: 3/5

Writing: 3/5

Overall: 4/5

Darkness level: Not very dark. One scary haunted house-esque scene and a description of how a ghost died. However, rated R for some graphic sex scenes

This year, I've been on the lookout for fantasy books that don't follow traditional epic fantasy conventions. No big quests to defeat a world-ending villain. So I was really excited to see a modern fantasy romance book come up as a recommendation for this category. I can count the number of romance books I've read on one hand, which made this book an exciting change for me. Vivienne is a college student studying witchcraft with her aunt and cousin. After her summer fling breaks her heart, she drunkenly curses her ex. Ten years later, Vivienne's ex reappears in her hometown to renew the ley lines that power her family's magic. It turns out that the joking curse she cast on him was a real curse, and now the entire town is going haywire. Vivienne and her ex have to fix the town's magic and resolved their messy feelings for each other. 

This book was very fun. I loved the lighthearted, everyday approach to witches and magic. The characters were memorable and easy to like. My biggest complaint was that there was a lot of lust in this book. I know that it's a romance, but the main characters probably devoted 75% of their mental energy to thinking about how hot the other one was. It was cute/funny at first, but got old after a while. Even people who are in the honeymoon stage of a relationship don't think about each other that much! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Rape

faithfulcat111's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

dominic_caudill's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.25

This book was really really great. Like fantastic and exactly what I was looking for when I set out to read it. Sort of a realistic-fantasy type of deal, where it takes place in the real world but has fictional concepts that are preestablished. Really fun read, with a pretty pretty good ending, not fantastic but still great. The middle half of the book was absolutely a blast and I loved it a whole lot. Minus .5 stars for extremely gratuitous animal violence. Why was there so much animal carnage. Felt unnecessary and not fun. But I did really love this book otherwise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Sexual violence, and Rape

cleverhans's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Animal death, Death, Murder, Suicide, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Child death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Cursing, and Drug use

mccwilliams's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This book is WACK. I knew it was going to be strange based on reviews but I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. Very dark. Very mysterious. Very confusing. Very very very disturbing. Gave it a 3 not because it wasn’t a good concept or because it wasn’t good writing, just because I didn’t like the way reading it made me feel. Super weird. Read it if you want to read something unlike anything you ever have before or ever wanted to really. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Suicide attempt, Child death, Sexual assault, Murder, Rape, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, and Body horror

albusmumblecore's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.25

i have absolutely no idea how to review this. it wasn't the weirdest book i've ever read, like many reviews say (though the author shoves us into the story with no explanations about anything and i love it when authors do that), but man. i genuinely thought i might DNF this or give it 2 stars, but by the middle it was 3 stars, i couldn't put it down, and now that i have finished it, i can't decide whether to stick with a 4 or not. maybe a 7.5/10 suffices.

that's purely down to me not completely vibing with this story while reading, though, especially since i've wanted to read it since it was published six years ago and thus i was perhaps overly hyped to read it. there's really nothing i think should actually be changed about it. ...honestly, the more i think about it after finishing, the higher i want to rate it.

as for an actual elevator pitch review: neil gaiman should be jealous that scott hawkins wrote the best mildly grimdark gaiman-esque book possible

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, and Violence