Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

8 reviews

seforana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bookwormcat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was a great book. Beautiful prose, compelling characters and a fascinating mystery. Dark and sad but with moments of real humour. I loved it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest, Excrement, and War

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

1. this book would not pass the bechdel test.
2. the twist almost made me shit myself. 
3. “the day was turning out to be longer than The Brothers Karamazov” is so funny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Racial slurs, Rape, Antisemitism, Abortion, and Classism

cathannahs's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Gun violence, Incest, and Death of parent

florafauna's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Blood, Antisemitism, and Alcohol

Minor: Chronic illness, Gore, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Excrement, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, and War

justabridge's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

 I am really sad to have not liked this one - I’d heard such good things about it, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I’m finding I really don’t enjoy protagonists in gothic novels; of the ones I’ve read, they tend to be bystanders, quite inactive in terms of the plot, and quite limp in terms of personality and internal drive. Daniel really hit these boxes, and so I struggled reading from his perspective.

I also found the story quite confused - did it want to be Daniel’s story? Or did it want to be Julian Carax’s? The book was trying to be both separately instead of blending the two, and so you ended up with huge chunks of exposition (sometimes 30-50 pages (ish) at a time), and it didn’t really feel like the characters had to work for the mystery or the payoff.

What really made this hard to enjoy for me though, was the relentless violence and constant oversexualisation of women. It was all the time, in pretty much every chapter, and felt so unnecessary. I think the only woman whose breasts and general sexual allure weren’t discussed in detail was Daniel’s mother, and she was dead prior to the book starting. And the casual beatings, the sexism, the slut-shaming, and other much heavier violence sprinkled throughout...it really didn’t feel like the female characters in this were allowed to be people, and it completely alienated and exhausted me while I was reading. Perhaps to some extent the attitudes were ‘historically accurate’, but I think that parameter was hit and bulldozed through very early on.

It is a shame, because the writing style in this was beautiful, the descriptions of Barcelona were so evocative, and I loved the setting of the Cemetery or Forgotten books. These things we just overshadowed by everything else. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Police brutality

Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

aasplund's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, and Violence

gwynsvan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Sexual content and Grief

Minor: Miscarriage, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Excrement