Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

15 reviews

_marycappiello3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

If I wasn’t a vegetarian, I think I might like trying to be a vampire. 😂😂😂😂

I couldn’t put this down. In fact, I was so mad that I had to go to sleep at all, and it was already almost 4 am when I finally gave into my slumber. Had no idea it had been made into a TV show until I was well into the book and read it in someone else’s review while making dinner last night. Now I’ve got to figure out how to stream it while waiting for the second book to come off my holds shelf on Libby.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

cgward00's review

dark funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

1.0

DNF at 84%

I should've paid more attention to the dozens of content warnings this book has: around 78% the book revealed that the trilogy is actually all about pregnancy and how the three supernatural races are meant to begin interbreeding. Pregnancy is a deal-breaker in books for me. A shame since I otherwise enjoyed the characters and vaguely historio-supernatural vibes even if some of it was a bit one-note at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, Cannibalism, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pregnancy

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Miscarriage, and War

larkspurlane's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Toxic relationship

kat1105's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and War

stardust_heidi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious 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? No

5.0

Always a favorite. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

hazelgirl21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.75

Review of A Discovery of Witches

By: Deborah Harkness

            Diana Bishop is a powerful witch from a strong family linage, but she refuses to use it, because of the danger it presents.  While at Oxford she comes across a manuscript, Ashmole 782, which contains secrets that could affects all species of this world: Witches, Vampires, Daemons.  Soon she finds herself being targeted by members of each species and her only protection is handsome vampire Matthew Claremont, a biology professor at the school.  The pair find themselves falling in love, but it is forbidden for different species to have a relationship.

            This has been compared to the Twilight series and it does have the same type of romance, but I find this a more interesting story.  Both Diana and Matthew had more personality, but he does exhibit the same controlling and protectiveness of Edward Cullen. Diana fights back when he tries to tell her what to do. Both are academically minded, making them more relatable to me, and I enjoyed all the research scenes.  It was cool to hear all about the all the people Matthew encountered and that’s one of my favorite part of vampires is knowing they’ve experienced so much history.  I liked learning about the different species, and even though Harkness was writing a story about characters we have seen so many times before, she does her own spin on these creatures. Though, I do wonder if vampire fans might have issue with her take on vampires, because they come off as a little less menacing, though Matthew still comes off as dangerous to me.  He is still immortal and strong and fast.  Meeting both their families and exploring their homes. The romance is sweet and exciting to read about.  The writing is nothing great, but an easy and fast read.  It is slow in a beginning, especially the scenes when she is in being stalked for the manuscript.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

brookeew's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I liked this book, and I enjoyed the dark/forbidden romance, but I did not find the story compelling enough to buy the next book in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Torture, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail