Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

47 reviews

jessyhere's review

adventurous dark

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Deadnaming, Gore, Forced institutionalization, and Pandemic/Epidemic

shaunashares's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic

lilawsahar's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

cute sapphic campy gory read, what more can you ask for? Four best friends go to a music concert in the desert. Oh and they’re all ghouls. Someone is making people ghoul-out, so the characters need to find out who and try to stop it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

perth_is's review

dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

9brightshiners's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

Mostly enjoyed this one! The everyday horror of transforming into and living as a 'monster' felt realistic and well thought out. Many elements of the plot and resolution depended upon privileged characters in a way that prevented me from feeling truly immersed or connected with characters at times. There is some aspect of found family in this story, but to me it felt disjointed and ultimately acted as a springboard for romantic relationships. Overall this was a queer teen coming of age story with a solid plot, emotional depth, and a mix of existential horror and gore that kept me engaged and rooting for the main characters. I appreciated the chapters from other characters' POVs and the media quotes and clippings from the fictional pandemic. They added a lot to the world building and helped build empathy and establish motivation for characters that wouldn't be possible if everything was from main character Zoe's perspective.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Minor: Deadnaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

The fictional monsters (ghouls) in this book are humans who underwent mutations during a pandemic and were driven to cannibalism. They are able to live human-like lives because of the creation of lab grown human meat. Trauma from the pandemic, discrimination against ghouls, internalized shame, gore, and body horror are prominent throughout the book. Most main characters are queer, one is trans, some are POC and real world discrimination against these identities also exists in this book. Frequent underage alcohol use. Drug use is nonconsensual (drug is fictional). Hate crime is against fictional identity specific to book.

levantervivi's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

vrsmith0429's review

adventurous 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

The way that the Ghouls were described reminded me of the Zombies in Warm Bodies

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Hate crime, Cannibalism, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Vomit, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Deadnaming

pbandjane_library's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Body horror

Moderate: Homophobia and Pandemic/Epidemic

aingealwroth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Blood, Cannibalism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Hate crime and Misogyny

Minor: Deadnaming, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Vomit

corsetedfeminist's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

This book is the campy queer horror that I needed. 

Featuring a friend group made up of a bisexual, a bi trans woman, a Black lesbian, and a token straight Latina girl, it is set in a post zombie adjacent apocalypse that created a group of people who can only survive on either human flesh or a lab crates equivalent. Everything is just a happy summer girl’s trip until it descends into part horror movie, part mystery. 

This book is incredibly fun, and I desperately need a good movie adaptation. 

Special shout out to the fact that despite the broad queer diversity, there’s exactly one mention in the entire book of transphobia- the conflict in the book all comes from the monster situation and a very precious childhood friends to lovers romance. As much as I love books that address homophobia and transphobia, sometimes it’s delightful to read a book where that isn’t the problem, it’s people turning into monsters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic