Reviews tagging 'Gore'

All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes

10 reviews

anarmandameg's review

dark sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism

melissa_cosgrove's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

Set in the 1920s, an Antartic expedition adventure quickly becomes deadly and frightening, when the crew become stranded and begin to see spectral apparitions.

I went into this thinking it was going to be horror from the start and was turned off when that wasn't the case and felt very heavy on the historical fiction, but I'm so glad I carried on, because I quickly ate this up whenever I picked it up.

It felt like like I was there with the expedition, feeling bone cold with the men and dogs out on the great expanse of ice and snow. I began to agree with their paranoia, thinking one or more of the crew had intentionally sabotaged the expedition, but to what ends and I grew insistently more anxious as to what supernatural forces were at play; why were the dogs going mad? Where was the German expedition? How longer would Jonathan be able to keep his privacy and will Harry, in a fit of rage, out him? How would they make it back home? ... If they ever would...

I adored this for the trans rep. I wasn't expecting it and to be in the head space of Jonathan, trying to navigate how he's always felt, whilst hiding on a ship he shouldn't be on, and trying to keep his body a secret when discovered was such a different experience. A perspective I thought was well explored (coming from a cis female).

This was such a great story. It felt pretty slow burn and psychological but when others confirmed sightings of ... <i> something </i>... it made me spiral as to how corporal these phantoms were and what they could do to the living.

A well written, well researched tale of isolation, desperation, identity and hope.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ofbooksandechos'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Transphobia, and Dysphoria

Minor: Homophobia, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and War

nikolas_fox's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Gore

abbeyhuffine94's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I'm obsessed with Antarctica so I snatched a spooky book set there right up! This was extremely eerie and unsettling due to the completely desolate atmosphere. I found the sheer isolation and desperation of the setting even eerier than the supernatural elements of the novel. The supernatural aspect was done so well because it was left so ambiguous that, as a non-believer, I could read it as the psychological affects of the environment on the characters.
WWI is a constant in the background of the novel. While I typically don't find war interesting, I think it was such a genius time setting for our protagonist. He is a trans man and the time period meant he couldn't live as himself without severe persecution. He had to deal with the trauma of his older brothers going off to be war heroes while he was left behind. He was able to live as himself among the exploration crew and carry out a dream of his and his brothers that he was previously excluded from - exploration of Antarctica. I think the time period was very interesting for the protagonist and furthered his development - why was traveling to remote, unknown, deadly Antarctica so important to him? The war, the time, his identity and family dynamics, make it so important for him.
Also I thought the characters were full of depth and nuance and very real people in all their challenges, imperfections, and impossible situations.
4.5 out of 5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Murder

jaymc's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Injury/Injury detail

nike13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

5.0

Great book!  This book dealt with a lot of things, terrors and secrets we keep within us, hope, trust and its all brought out with the monster in the wastelands.  Is it really a monster or just in everyone's head?  The author did a great job keeping the atmosphere through the whole thing as each obstacle and limit was reached.  The narrator was perfect keeping tone through-out too.  Johnathan was a great character, you got invested in their growth and I'm really proud of how strong and resilient he was with the horrors around.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death

blklagoon's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

I haven’t been this engrossed in a book in a long time. The descriptions truly chilled me to my bones, I understood the cold. Spooky and mysterious to the end, with just a touch of gore. And a trans protagonist in horror? Where his gender was a minor detail and there was actual plot not relating to gender? Incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Deadnaming, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria

jamielikestoread's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Vomit

Moderate: Transphobia