Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

51 reviews

terranstorm's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.0

I enjoyed the story overall, but despite having many elements that look for in a fun queer sci fi, I found it hard to sink into. I stuck it out and definitely enjoyed the two mains growing closer and kicking ass together… but I had forgotten this was a series with, you guessed it, a cliffhanger. I kinda hate that.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Body horror and Torture

sydsmeets'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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Blood, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

fanboyriot's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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

♡ Slow Burn

♡ Found Family

♡ Sapphic Sci-fi

Sona and Eris were absolutely iconic and I love them so much.   I enjoyed this book so much.  The found family was everything and the writing in general was really amazing.  Every scene was set perfectly and the atmosphere described so well.

The duel point of view was done so beautifully.  Seeing the differences in personalities between Eris and Sona was kinda hilarious at times.  They had a bit of banter between them which was great and the flirting was lovely too.

Overall, it was so easily to fall into the world of this book, to love the characters and be there cheering them on.  

Spice Level: n/a

Angst Level: 💧(1/5)

POV: Duel, First Person

Release Date: 29, June 2021

Rep: Lesbian (Main Character), Bisexual? (Main Character), LGBTQIA+ Characters, BIPOC Characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Bullying, Self harm, Slavery, and Death of parent

mj1588's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

building_a_bookdom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

thewillowwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

This book was pretty good! It was charming, and the love story and world were interesting. I do think it suffered a bit from dialogue/speeches that erred on the side of being overdramatic and cheesy, but for the first published book of a writer it’s really nothing aggregate. Good fast paced sci fi action read; it’s “gay pacific rim” as my roommate described it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Physical abuse, and Vomit

spaghettii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Cyberpunk lesbians, need I say more?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

emerentina's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Gun violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Misogyny and Sexual content

kananineko's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.0

I enjoyed this book!! However, it also made me realize that YA scifi/fantasy isn't really my thing anymore... In short, read this if you like character-driven stories focused on relationships (romantic and otherwise), and don't mind a typical YA writing style and plot. 

So, I loved the characters in this, especially the two main characters. I felt really connected to them, felt they were distinct, easily rooted for them, and loved their relationship and all of its developments. I also loved pretty much all of the side characters even though they weren't very fleshed out (I thought that was okay because this book really focused on the two MCs). The found family dynamic in this was amazing as well. 

The atmosphere of this book was really cool and I enjoyed the idea of the Windups (mechas) and Gearbreakers. But I will say that the worldbuilding was... kinda bad tbh. I didn't really understand the whole thing with the Windups being gods but also not really, and there was a lot of worldbuilding infodumping early on in the book that didn't really make logical sense... 

And this leads me to my point about this book making me realize that maybe I need to stop reading YA scifi/fantasy. The iffy worldbuilding and teenagers-overthrowing-an-evil-government plot strongly reminded me of all those YA dystopias that were really popular back in the 2010s. Don't get me wrong, not all of those were bad, and I think this is leagues better than a lot of them (especially relationship/character-wise) but I'm starting to realize that I'm finally tired of those types of books. 

And the writing style was the worst offender in terms of YA typicality. The author is definitely talented and I'm sure a lot of people will love her writing, but to me it just felt so... overdone. Overdramatic. Dare I say... "I'm 14 and this is deep"? Even when I empathized/agreed with things the characters were feeling or thinking, I couldn't stand the way the author phrased them. And there were so many one-line paragraphs! 

So. 

Many. 

Why? Just why?

And this is coming from someone who loves flowery, metaphor-heavy writing (ex. Laini Taylor). It wasn't done well here in my opinion. It wasn't unreadable, but did make the story a bit clunky at times, especially during fast-paced action scenes. I just think that the writing style and the plot and world are so deeply YA, which is totally okay! Just not something I am super into anymore. 

You're probably wondering why, after that rant, I'm giving it 4/3.5 stars, but it's because, despite my complaints, I had a lot of fun reading this! I really enjoyed the characters, their relationships, and the found family dynamic. I found it relatively easy to read and fun. I'm also hoping that the worldbuilding will get a little more solid in the sequel, which I will be reading because I want to see the characters get a happy ending (hopefully). 

However, no matter how enjoyable I found this book to be, I don't think I want to read any more fun but shallow YA dystopian/scifi/fantasy stories anymore. This very well may be my last one. Actually, that will probably be the sequel to this book, but oh, well. Point still stands. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

krystaldelusion's review

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Violence, and War

Minor: Body horror and Child death