Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

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

thissagreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

1.5

As cool as the plot line is, this is another YA that falls short of knocking the ball out the park. 

There are a lot of questions, post festival, like:

where was Val living if she ran out her parents window?? What about Jasmine’s parents? And what happened to her brother? What does daily life look, walking around as a ghoul?

 

There were also holes with the “zombie”- like universe, and the pace moved SO SLOW!!!! For a dystopian like book, I was really hoping this would be a fast pace story, with more action and less back and forth teenage romance b.s. 

But that’s what it was, in my opinion, and it was a real let down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Abandonment

Minor: Religious bigotry and War

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

zsnails99's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Deadnaming, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, and Alcohol

spaghettii's review

Not my thing

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

cuteasamuntin's review

dark lighthearted mysterious fast-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

3.75

The concept is extremely cool, and I would try out other books by this author! This was definitely a great YA book. There were places where I wanted to see more and places that felt bare to me, but I think that’s more a consequence of my having grown up beyond the age of the book’s target demographic. 

I found myself wishing this book was a little longer and a little more slowly paced so I could explore the world more (and maybe get a  better feel for any characters so they would feel more three-dimensional and real). The queer rep was pretty cool, and I appreciated the author’s use of gender-inclusive language throughout.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Gore, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Deadnaming

samburkhouse's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Drug use, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

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