Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

22 reviews

hxppyhxt's review against another edition

slow-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

2.0

2 Stars instead of 1 because I really enjoyed the first half or so of the book.

Far too long of a book. I really enjoyed the first half or so of the book, then I got to the point where I was like there is still half of this book to read and everything in the summary has been done. And the random capitalization in words was so annoying, I thought they would spell something (especially when the author set this up to be the case with 

Spoilerthe journal) but spelling them out in many places was just fruitless. Very frustrating. I decided to DNF after an entire chapter of the uppercase nonsense where I spent so long trying to decode it only to get something along the lines of "HIMEEEEEEEIEEE". So many "hE". I thought that maybe it was intentional to just refer to a specific character in this way, but then even within the chapter it was not consistently "hE", sometimes it would just be a normal "he", which blew that theory out of the water. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to figure it out but honestly it got to the point where I didn't even care enough to figure it out.

Some of the twists were well set up so that you could figure them out or at least get a sense that something was amiss. Others felt completely random and felt like they had virtually no setup or foreshadowing.

SpoilerI don't mind some religious undertones, but in this case it really felt like two different books. The first half really had very little indication that the plot was headed towards a Christian allegory, and then in the second half it just felt like "and guess what, this is Satan. Oh and this? Yea she's actually the Virgin Mary. Oh yea, this is God. This is the Tree of Good and Evil. This is Eve, you know from the garden of Eden? And this is literal Hell" and on and on. I feel like setting it up more at the beginning would have made it feel less random.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Blood, Torture, Pregnancy, Suicide, Body horror, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

finn_vibing's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Gore, Cursing, Car accident, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Body horror, Death of parent, Animal death, Death, Child death, Grief, Self harm, Gun violence, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual harassment, War, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual violence, and Animal cruelty

theimposter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Murder, Sexual violence, Confinement, Physical abuse, War, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Body horror, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexual assault, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

Minor: Dementia, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Cursing, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Chronic illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

bibrarian_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

If you ever wanted to read NOS4A2 by Joe Hill but weirdly religious, this is the book for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death of parent, War, and Suicide

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Alcoholism, and Cursing

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy and Sexual content

sarahkmcl's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

Scary!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Self harm, Pregnancy, Death, Child death, Body horror, Physical abuse, Murder, Child abuse, Torture, Gun violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Car accident, and Blood

linneak's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Car accident, Child death, Confinement, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Violence, Torture, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Physical abuse, Stalking, Alcoholism, Bullying, Gun violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

soyboi's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.5

Spoiler

This book is one big Jesus allegory and it sucks. It’s not subtle. I never read Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I guess I expected more from the author. Not one big Sunday school version of his personal heroic fantasies. “The Hissing Lady” aka Satan, but let’s make her a woman because women are the root of all evil I guess. “Don’t go off the street, or they’ll get you.” aka the Xtian path. The main character’s name is literally CHRISTopher. 
Also, it bugged me that all these other characters, like Brody and Jenny and the librarian, are the Hissing Lady’s henchmen toward the end because they’re LITERALLY BEING ABUSED. Like, Jenny is being molested by her brother and when she’s under the Hissing Lady’s power, she wants to punish the brother. But imo, the little fucker SHOULD be punished. Why are we making that Satanic? Sounds like justice to me. Anyway, I’m not a fan of being beaten over the head with bible stories. Gag me. 
This book was LONG AS HELL. So much of it us extraneous details and the same words and sentiments repeated over and over. 
The half star is for the narrator of the audiobook, who has a great voice and was able to give each character a little something different. Props to her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Dementia, Mental illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Torture, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

abbyg007's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Death, Car accident, Child abuse, Dementia, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Suicide

fate_of_ansley's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Sexual assault, Stalking, Blood, Bullying, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry