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thomgeg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Abandonment
cat12345's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Eating disorder, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Incest, Grief, and Alcohol
abken's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Confinement and Abandonment
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, and Mental illness
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
biobeetle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Abandonment
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Mental illness
megxn07's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, and Grief
Minor: Mental illness
kers_tin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
vithelovers's review against another edition
- 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? N/A
4.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, and Abandonment
emilia_thereader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Grief
Minor: Blood
bookish_bry's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Gregor's sister becomes his main caregiver. She is young and both seems to resent her role as caretaker and at times relishes it. She wants to be the only one caring for Gregor and for him to depend on her often more than he already does.
Gregor's mother treats him like he's dead and talks about him "coming back" even though this is clearly a permanent change. The sight of him sickens her and scares her. She still has some affection for him, enough to defend him from his father sometimes, but is a horrific affection to her. Like loving a urn filled with his remains.
Then, Gregor's father of course hates him. He resorts to physical violence almost immediately. Despite the fact that Gregor had spent his life trying to pay off his father's debts (who in the end really... did not seem as invalid as Gregor had thought of him considering he was able to get a job to pay his own debts), he held no regard for Gregor once he was useless to him.
I found the extended metaphor intriguing and well done. As someone who just got off crutches after a knee injury and who at times was a sickly, but overachieving, child, I can sympathize with Gregor a lot. Especially in the first chapter, he continued to try to get up and go to work even though something was clearly very, very wrong. These thoughts that he should be able to do things like he used to for his family continued to crop up to the end.
Overall, I thought it was a very solid book and a great metaphor. Though I do think you have to make sure to keep the fact that it is a metaphor in mind while reading. 5/5
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, and Mental illness
This book is about a man turning into an insect and acting like one.sarahrosea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, and Abandonment
Moderate: Ableism and Suicide