Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith

36 reviews

porporina's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Vomit, Alcohol, Abandonment, Body horror, Misogyny, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexism

colubridae's review

dark mysterious reflective 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Body horror

Moderate: Excrement, Colonisation, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Incest, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, and Pedophilia

mmefish's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.75

Incredible. I wanna talk about it for days.

The way Winnie found true happiness in becoming a rat is just delightful.

How could I explain the way time seemed to slip from my fingers, the way I became incrementally more detached, more unable to reach out a hand to take anything I wanted? 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, and Drug use

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Pedophilia, Animal death, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Eating disorder, War, Incest, and Rape

ashwaar's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Build Your House Around My Body is, to me, an example of perfect novel construction - an interesting, deeply thematic story where the author trusts us, readers, to figure out what’s going on and even if we don’t entirely understand it, that ends up not mattering because the writing style is so enthralling and engaging.

I’ve seen several reviews saying they didn’t really ‘get’ this book or didn’t understand the end or how the individual stories were connected. Whilst I understand why some people would feel this way, I don’t share these sentiments. All the things listed as negatives in these reviews I thought were absolutely brilliant. I wish more books were written like this instead of the clunky, overly-expositional writing I see in many other novels.

The book alternates between different characters and timelines, and this can be hard to follow, especially at first. However, the storyline is so compelling, and it's really compelling as you start to understand how these different narratives come together. Some of our main characters include Winnie, a 20-something Vietnamese-American who has come to Saigon to teach English; Tan, a corrupt policeman; his brother Long, who works at the school with Winnie; their childhood friend Binh; a fortune-teller and his assistants; a small dog; an old woman selling lottery tickets, and a two-headed cobra.

I thought the characters were a perfect mix of engaging and repulsive. They were all very flawed and not really great people. I didn’t root for them at all which is usually a huge turn-off for me, but I was motivated to keep reading because their roles and stories were so interesting, layered and complex. I think this would be a great book to study in a literature class because there is so much to explore in terms of different themes, including Vietnamese folklore, ghost stories, trying to find belonging in a new country, the treatment of women, and backpacker culture in Vietnam.

In conclusion, I loved this book! I thought it was fascinating, sharp, creepy and highly compelling. I can tell that on re-reading, you’ll notice so much more about the story, and it will be like a completely different experience. It is slightly longer, but I think it's so gorgeously written, and the pay-off is completely worth it. This is a book with so many nuances it's impossible to explore in one review, but the author manages to pull it off expertly in these 400 pages.

Rating: 4.5/5

Read the full review on Bookmarked by Ash or follow me on @bookmarked_by_ash

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Excrement, Blood, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Sexism, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Classism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Rape, Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, and Incest

savvylit's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.0

Build Your House Around My Body is a masterful blend of historical fiction and magical realism. Each paranormal element in the book is a visual representation of the ripple effects of the trauma of colonialism and violence. Kupersmith's use of magical realism is done to devastating effect and I certainly won't forget any of her monsters any time soon.

As a whole, this book is a fascinating glimpse into Vietnam, both past and present. Some of the most interesting portions of the book were Winnie's observations of modern ex-pat culture in Saigon. It was no surprise to learn that Kupersmith herself was also an ESL teacher like Winnie. Kupersmith's intimacy with specific stereotypical ex-pats shines through in her written caricatures of Winnie's coworkers.

Ultimately, my only criticisms of this novel would be its length (400 pages) and organization. The timeline jumps so often that it disrupts the flow of the greater story. There are also several characters that readers only briefly get to know. I think that their portions could have been cut back or woven into another character's perspective to keep the book at a more manageable length.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Mental illness, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Murder, Classism, War, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Body horror, and Xenophobia

maggies's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I am more glad that I finished this book than that I read it at all. It is grotesque and disturbing, and I was almost constantly nauseated reading it. It wasn’t a positive experience, but it was an amazingly woven tapestry, spanning decades and dimensions, impressively coming together bit by bit. Heed my warning though: gross.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, and Vomit

Minor: Colonisation, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, and Excrement

ka_cam's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-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

A ghosty revenge tale with history, local spirits, and the rage and ennui of young women and girls? Yes please. I enjoyed piecing together what was going on and felt the characters, times, and supernatural elements were deftly woven together. I found it well written and emotionally engaging. Only drawback was due to the number of characters I felt the character development could have been stronger. All in all a great read (do mind the content warnings though).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Murder

Minor: Eating disorder, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Incest, and War

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Dysphoria, Sexism, Colonisation, Drug use, Body horror, Death, and Vomit

Minor: Eating disorder, Child abuse, and Incest

katewhite77's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.0

Creepy but gripping. 

I don't usually do horror but this is more creepy than horrific and has enough of a realist plot to grab non horror fans. I couldn't stop reading. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Murder, Death, Body horror, Blood, Racism, and Misogyny