Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

15 reviews

chellareads's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

lakinlindsey's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, and Gaslighting

indigo_fox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book was difficult to put down! Something always caught my interest and made me want to move on to the next chapter. 

I didn't really care for the characters. Apollo and Emma both got on my nerves and I didn't find either of them to be very likeable. Patrice was cool though. He's a solid bro. The parts with him were easily some of my favorite moments. 

I found this book to be very creepy. There were moments were I actually cringed away from the book because I was so freaked out. I still have a bunch of questions, and there are moments where I am not entirely sure what happened. 

That being said, I enjoyed the book! It wasn't what I was expecting but I wasn't disappointed. I hear this author has other books and I plan on checking them out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

jialianyang's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

A beautiful tale that quickly snowballs into a haunting, mysterious, sad, and horrifying thriller. Survivors birthing and parenting survivors, a book man seeks vengeance, a mother fights to find her real child, all of these are just snapshots of the twists and turn in this gripping book. It's won many awards for good reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality

itzblancas's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Racism, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

 

The Changeling is a very interesting story and I honestly am not sure how to rate it. This is my first time reading a full length dark fairy tale and I'll say that I enjoyed it for the most part. I enjoyed the first half of the book more than I enjoyed the second half, probably because at the 3/4th mark in the book it gets a little bit confusing and is a little hard to follow.

I don't want to say too much because this is one of those books where the reader should start reading this with as little information on the book as possible. Overall I'll say that this was really creative and I really enjoyed LaValle's writing style. I felt creeped out a few times so this is the perfect read for spooky season! This wasn't my favorite book and I didn't feel completely fulfilled by the ending, I do however respect and appreciate the creativity that went into this story.

I'm going to give this 3.5 stars out of 5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

caidyn's review

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

Wow, what a good book! I do think it could have been shorter, but it was still excellent and kept me going.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

jbeoin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

SUCH a good book! Victor LaValle has an amazing way of building and exploring character relationships, and he grounds the fantasy elements in such a vivid and real way. He also is one of the best audiobook narrators I've listened to! Great voice, both literary and physical.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

glorifiedloveletters's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A really good book that makes you say, "Oh, just a few pages more..." but WOW is it dark. If you are deep in pregnancy, early childhood, or post-child loss, I wouldn't recommend reading this, but otherwise, it's super compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Violence, and Murder

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Okay, wtf did I just read?!
At first, the story was so nice and funny and light-hearted for the most part. Then it got more intense and weird. And around the 50% mark it got totally off the rails... and that was just the beginning.

Although I liked the characters, they did some questionable things throughout the book. I loved the dark fairy tale like atmosphere and the writing style. Especially the humour in the first half of the book, which did disappear for the majority of the second half due to how dark and intense the plot got. Btw, I did not like the name of the bad guy because.. why? Couldn't take him seriously tbh, and it took out all the tension every time it was mentioned. 

I liked how unpredictable the plot was and all the different parts of it. I just think the book was too long. At least it felt like it was dragging sometimes despite all the action and mystery elements. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment