Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

31 reviews

barium_squirrel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

owenthetyley's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Rape, Kidnapping, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Abortion

sf_book_cat's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

Amazing book, so creative. Fantastic world-building almost better than anything I’ve ever read before.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Sexual content

tim_townes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

You better strap in, because this is a truly wild ride. While other authors get the worldbuilding out of the way early, China Miévielle just does. not. stop.

Very minor spoiler to give you an idea:

Halfway through the book, the ambassador of literal hell just casually pops up. And that's just the setup for an even wilder concept.

And I'm all for it. Coupled with a tense thriller plot and a vivid, imaginative cityscape, Perdido Street Station entrances you with its colorful imagery (ha! You'll get the joke once you've read it.) and doesn't let go until the end. If you're willing to roll with the more outlandish concepts, I highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Rape and Torture

bennyfelds's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Torture

rartastic's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This review sums up my feelings pretty well: https://ucsdguardian.org/2015/04/01/fully-booked-china-mievilles-perdido-street-station/

Also a quote from someone else that he tries to give us too much breadth in the book, so he ends up twisting characters into things they wouldn’t normally do. 

I got tired of how gross and dark the city was. There was some deus ex machina toward the end that I found annoying. 

It felt like it was trying to be a new Ankh Morpork/Discworld. But it was way darker and worse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Violence

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail

foxmulders's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.25

oy vey… this came highly rated and recommended by sff audiences but this was an utter miss for me. i think i would have enjoyed this if we spent more time on the interpersonal lives of lin and isaac and yag. the slake-moth stuff felt like a 400+ page slog through a monster of the week tv show filler episode. the initial story - about forbidden love and an outsider seeking to regain flight - had promise but falls apart entirely in the end chapters. overall disappointing. the treatment of lin in particular felt pointless and unnecessary in its cruelty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

This is an extraordinary book. I was bowled over when I read it twenty years ago, and it is just as powerful now. It’s about racism and loyalty and a repressive state, and about the resilience of those who are affected. I can’t recommend it highly enough - it’s phenomenal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

arken_rose's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, and Police brutality

Minor: Animal cruelty and Child abuse