Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez

115 reviews

sina4books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Excrement, Gun violence, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Violence, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, and Blood

pehanicovaaa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

The stories itself were good,not all of them but my personal fav are Where are you,dear heart? The Well and Back When We Talked To Dead, only thing that botheted me was the endings,they don’t do the story justice,it didn’t wrap up the story as it should 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Cannibalism, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

librarymouse's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.5

This was a quick read. The shorter stories felt like an RL Stine book, but vulgar. "Kids Who Come Back" had unnecessary use of transphobic slurs, but was the longest and most engaging story in the book.
Copious references to and depictions of bodily fluid didn't necessarily add to the horror, but made reading this a bit disgusting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Sexual assault, Self harm, Sexism, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Body horror, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicide, and Transphobia

Moderate: Abandonment

woolgatherer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

2.5

I was really looking forward to this collection of short stories, especially as someone who enjoys some haunting atmospheres. Enríquez does a great job crafting an eerie Buenos Aires and some very dark plots for her stories, though I found some were more convincing than others. Unfortunately, I felt that something was missing in these stories and I really struggled to stay focused on this collection. I want to say the issue might be that almost all of them fell flat at the end for me. It could be that the author wanted to leave an air of mystery at the end of these stories, but I found that she was a bit unsuccessful on this front. It should also be noted that the short story, “Kids Who Come Back,” has a lot of transphobic slurs that I thought were entirely unnecessary and didn’t serve a purpose to the story (and, in fact, ruined it).

I’m still interested in reading Enríquez’s other works, but this collection was a bit of a letdown.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Cannibalism, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Trafficking, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Transphobia

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

kjboldon's review

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

4.25

Enter at your own risk: rape, violence, cannibalism, self harm, suicide, use of transphobic slurs by a character and a whole bunch else. This book is bonkers, horrifying on purpose, and not for the faint of heart. But wow was it a ride. Dark AF. I was reading along and feeling like I was doing OK even though horror isn't usually my jam, then I got to the story on heartbeats.Whoa. So, there's lots of landmines and triggers here. Take care of yourself as you read this and if something upsets you, skip to the next story or put it down. But reading to the end gets you a fabulous story about teen girls and a Ouija board. This is scary, spooky AF, and part of that is the way the supernatural and the everyday horrors overlap and bleed into one another. I think Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith would all be proud that this work stands on their (and many others') shoulders. Did you enjoy Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties? This reminded me of that, but even more so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Transphobia, Blood, Death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Self harm, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Trafficking

uryun's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Esta chulo, hay historias muy guais, pero estoy cada vez más convencida de que este tipo de libros no me terminan de gustar del todo porque no me van las historias cortas. Mis favoritas han sido "El desentierro de la angelita", "El aljibe" y la historia que da nombre al libro.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Cannibalism

epistemoca's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Blood

freyaturtle's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

3/5 
Some of the short stories I really enjoyed (in particular Our Lady of the Quarry and Kids Who Come Back) and felt that at time Enriquez managed to create a really distinctive and spooky atmosphere. Feel this book was let down by a lot of the short stories though, which often seemed to follow a similar format/structure

Spoiler

(i.e. introducing character, something weird happens to them, that weirdness is normally partially resolved but never fully explained)

. I personally enjoy short story collections but feel like the stories needed more variety between them in order to keep me engaged.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Cannibalism, and Murder

msteasam's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

3.5

I don't usually click with short story collections because they tend to leave too much unexplored or don't develop the story well enough. Some of these felt like full stories and some were cut off way too soon and let me unsatisfied.
Overall an interesting and unsettling collection.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror and Addiction

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Child death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Child abuse, Death, Self harm, Trafficking, and Excrement

bethvarlow's review

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Excrement, Cannibalism, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts