Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

24 reviews

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

A story about being a hypochondriac living in a rented flat with thin walls who finds it so hard to keep up with friends, whose wife says she'll be gone for three weeks and instead stays gone for six months. And then when she comes back she comes back so wrong. How do you live with that grief? What can you even hope to do about this?
It's a love story, it's a ghost story, it's a horror story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Death, Violence, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Suicide, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual content, Vomit, Abandonment, Dementia, Gore, Blood, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Cursing

Minor: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Contains descriptions of

Spoiler

drowning and eye horror

theirgracegrace's review

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

I read this book in a whirlwind three weeks and I cannot get it out of my head. The pastiche of character moments (especially at the end) can come across as jarring but helps to solidify the main characters Miri and Leah. Their relationship deteriorates when Leah comes back "wrong" after a routine research trip in a submarine leaves her stranded on the ocean floor for six months. The point-of-view bounces between Miri trying to make sense of her wife's strange behaviour and Leah explaining how the trip might have purposefully done for some mysterious ends. A tragic ending puts this book high on my list of recommended books. A fantastic read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Body horror, Confinement, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Animal death, Terminal illness, Cursing, Dementia, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer

One of the main characters is trapped in a submarine with two other people for six months and the three of them go clinically insane.

redphonebooth3's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It's gonna take me a bit before I can stop thinking about this book. 
As always I have to say I'm not a lit fic person. I dabble with the occasional lit fic novel, but in general it's not my preferred genre. 
However.... This fucking book, my dudes. It was so very creepy and every and spooky without really trying to be any of that. I can't explain it exactly. The whole time I kept thinking 'wtf is going on?' and not in a way where I couldn't follow the story, but in a way where you only got bits and pieces and everything was strange and mysterious and you could kinda see the picture but it's vague and missing pieces. Somehow that made it even more almost uncomfortable to read. 
But it was so fucking good because of this. The writing style is also very beautiful and lyrical, not a must for me, but in this case it really elevated the story itself I found. It helped to create these images or helped form characters more abstract thoughts and emotions. 
The way this whole novel came together was just so expertly done. Every word carried weight. That made it quite heavy for a book that's just 230 pages long. But it was so worth it. I cannot explain enough how much this book will keep swirling around in my brain until I can finally let it go. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore

carbinara's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

I had went into this with high hopes, then got let down a bit, then left having enjoyed it. An odd process. I had went in expecting horror, not really having read lit fic, so I found the first 150 pages quite slow and tedious. However, once you get past the 150 page mark the plot starts going and I really enjoyed it. While I much preferred Leahs POV to Miri’s, both gave such an insight to these characters and the situation they’re in. I found myself really feeling for both of them by the end. I think the characterisation was well done, although I wish the plot was more neatly wrapped up. That being said, I think that was intentional.

Spoiler

I’m really glad we actually “saw” a sea monster and it wasn’t just left as movement in the darkness

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, and Gore

taylorlcver's review

book was loaned to me by a friend and I returned it before we had to part ways for a while

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Body horror

deviya's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Heart breaking heart shattering changed me forever I will never be the same God it hurts terrifying mysterious 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 5 stars <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Vomit, Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping, Dementia, and Lesbophobia

mazielee's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Body horror and Gore

honigbieni's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Confinement, Gore, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Minor: Sexual content and Medical content

raichou's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

I was so intrigued after hearing about this book. The premise was really promising and it did not disappointing! 

Some people didn't like that there was no real conclusion what really happened, but that is exactly what I liked about it. It left me wondering what happened, what is down there that we have no idea exists? 

It has a bit if the Lovecraftian element of the unknown, some bigger things we can't understand. 
I really enjoyed it, but I can also understand if some people would like more of a conclusion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Gore and Death

blacksphinx's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

I feel like, since I loved Annihilation, I should have loved this too? But I didn't. They have a lot of elements in common - a female scientist encounters something unexplainable while doing research for an mysterious organization - but I don't think the dual PoVs worked for me. It felt less like a horror novel or weird fiction than an exploration of the grief you feel to having a loved one die of a degenerative disease and/or dementia. 

If you have issues with body horror (especially eye injuries) DO NOT read this book - it made me physically ill. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Confinement

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Dementia, and Mental illness

Minor: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Eating disorder