Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

10 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I adored the storyline of this book! Four best friends, Zoey, Celsete, Valeria, and Jasmine, are what are know as Hollow. The Hollowing was a viral ghoul contagion that turned part of the population into flesh eating monsters. As a solution, scientists developed SynFlesh, synthetic human flesh. As the girls head to a Southern California music festival for the weekend, weird things begin to happen, starting with Val attacking and eating one of the performers. I love that this focused on all four girls and their journeys from normal, to hungry flesh eating ghoul, to reformed and relatively normal Hollow person. I think the fun girls trip turned murder mystery zombie adventure is hilarious and hugely engaging. My issues stem from the chronology. This book would flash forward and backward between each girl pretty frequently. The issue is the different times were not explicitly stated so it became a tad confusing. Also Zoey was the main character but shared the stage (she should either been telling this in first person or had a more equally divided story). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

rene_reads02's review

emotional funny reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Deadnaming

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.

ilaxaria's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Vomit

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

nerdysread's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

Really liked it. More to come (probably)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

sav_22's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.25

This was a fun ride! It’s a perfect balance of horrifying and endearing. The main group is a group of girls trauma bonded by the event that changed the world known as The Hollowing. I found all of the girls to be relatable and intriguing to get to know; even when it mainly follows a first person one narrator format, we get pov switches in the form of flashbacks in 3rd person to dive into other characters. There’s romance and a hint of a love triangle, but I would say that it is very much a subplot to the overall plot. All of the four main characters are sapphic, which to me is something I always appreciate when writers realistically write queer people sticking together.

There are some questions left unanswered imo, and it’s kind of an open ending, but it doesn’t deter from the overall satisfaction of the book for me. There are some intense horror elements like body horror and gore, but it wasn’t overdone or overzealous. I really enjoyed reading the evolution of the main couple, even if it wasn’t a major focus and it was predictable I think that it complimented the story and themes well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

genevieve_eggleston's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Biphobia, Confinement, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria

astralbooks's review

dark lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Cannibalism, and Murder

Minor: Emotional abuse

bradley's review

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

The concept behind the story could have been so cool but the execution is just plain bad. Descriptions are repeated almost word-for-word several times and it’s exhausting. If I have to read about how every baby hair on the back of your neck stood on end or how you felt electricity where your crush’s skin brushed against yours I’m gonna lose it! Might have worked as a short story but as it stands? Incredibly corny, and a slough to get through. 

 

And despite repetitive description of the scene and the drywall-personality having main character, the plot itself is inconsistant, as well as the rules set up by the narrative. The most egregious example is toward the end where

Zoey chides Cole for turning ghouls into anthropophagi reminding him that they were parents, siblings, children, but within the next five pages is given a stun gun to attack the anthropophagi, and says, and I quote, “cool”

RIDICULOUS!! Wanted to DNF several times but mama didn’t raise a quitter!!!!!

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Alcohol

Minor: Deadnaming, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

parental neglect