Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Heartless Heathens by Santana Knox

4 reviews

devsreadsnrambles's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

If you are a dark romance reader, give this a shot. If you are a contemporary romance reader, PLEASE CHECK THE TRIGGER WARNINGS!!! 
There are a lot of possible triggers, especially regarding religion. 

That being said, this book was HOT HOT HOT. I enjoyed the reverse harem of tattooed bad boys. There were some plot points that didn't quite hit for me, but I definitely enjoyed the

revenge against the priest that locked Romina up in the tower

. 
I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the story itself and how invested I was in seeing Romina come out on top. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

thefox_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad 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

5.0

This was a reread for me and it held up just as well as it did the first time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mothermoth's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.25

The world building was very rambling and just felt like trudging through words after you get past the beginning it’s pretty good  also a bit too real if your looking for a book to take you into fantasy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Torture, and Pandemic/Epidemic

booksandcurlz's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5

My feelings for this book are complicated.

The themes of the book are dark, and the TW/CW should be taken seriously, Knox does not hold back. So please read them carefully before you decide whether this book is for you or not.

Initially, I struggled with the power dynamic between the guys and Romina since she was socially and emotionally stunted, abused, and neglected. 

Even though they never did anything without her consent, it felt unsettling to me, since to me she was consenting to something that she didn’t really understand.  I want to clarify that this was a me thing, I had to sit with those feelings and unpack why it felt that way to me. I took a step back from my judgement and kept reading. 

After a while as Romina explored the world she started gaining a voice, and was quite vocal about things at times

like when Sonny used degrading words, and she used the safeword they had agreed upon and asked him to stop because she didn’t like that

The dystopian aspect of the book hit a little to close to home with the current state of affairs where the United States is heading in terms of the separation of the Church and State. Which made it difficult to fully immerse myself without getting enraged. 

What I 🖤:
🖤 Romina - embracing her full female rage while remaining compassionate, understanding, and giving.
🖤 Sonny - Poor scarred man, all he wanted was to protect the people he loved the most, but in doing so he just pushed them away by attempting to make decisions for them. 
🖤 Felix - 🥹 He was the sweetest most understanding of the bunch, the love he had for his twin was heart melting.
🖤 Corvin - 🥺 his condition made me sad, after their initial first encounter they both worked hard at their friendship to the point where Romina felt comfortable around him. He was the best IMHO
🖤 Ressa - She was the comedic relief in part, she became such a good friend to Tessa and she really came through during the period emergency. 
🖤 The crossover - Feral is the only way I can describe finding this nugget after reading La Reina del Cártel series. The side characters that are getting their own series made a quick appearance, love, love, love! 

There was a part of the sub-plot that I wanted more from, there was some tension, yet I would have preferred more before the resolution occurred. 

There were only a few chapters that I can say I was ready for: Chapter 37 felt intense and the last chapter (before the epilogue) also felt intense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Drug use