Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

38 reviews

dizzyizzyy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicide, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Transphobia and Vomit

hedsek's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

I really wanted to like this but I couldn't with the writing style. Why is the main character so annoyingly aware of the (modern) reader? It feels very anachronistic and kind of took me out of the book a few times. I also really did not enjoy the snarky dialogue and all the random stereotyping about different nationalities, which is like 1/3 of the dialogue. There's also a few times where it is super clear what we're supposed to figure out as the reader but the author still pretends it's mysterious only to drop it at the end of a chapter like it's some huge plottwist, especially

the thing with Madeline walking like the hare

. I'll be reading the original story as well, the book did get me curious. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and War

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

The pseudo fantastical nature was foreboding and creepy in a good way, but I'm not a big horror person so I mostly just wanted to get away from the sentient fungi.  I did read the short story it is based on which was predominantly vibes, and I liked this reinterpretation of it more than the original because the characters had much more depth.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

softanimal's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gun violence, Xenophobia, Grief, and War

Minor: Sexism, Transphobia, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

pvnkcorpse's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Gore, Sexism, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

lupinreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

 Great book!! I really love whenever the biology of real life animals or plants are brought to the extremes within a horror novel. I read my first T. Kingfisher book last year and could tell I loved the author even if The Hollow Places wasn't quite the right book for me. This book proved my theory! Looking forward to reading more from this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Sexism

bookboxbabe's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

i mean, it’s alright i guess. 

i wasn’t spooked or anything but i had no idea it was a retelling of edgar allan poe when i picked it up, which is on me i admit (i don’t like eap)

regardless, the book was boring. 

not bad, not good, just blah. it was quick which is why i finished it in one sitting, but i just didn’t care about anything that happened.

and fungus? really? alright then, i guess that’s the hill we’re dying on.

the only character i hoped lived and that i actually liked was hob. yes, the horse. he was the only good person in here.

this would work well as a short film or movie i think. the vibes were there and it would’ve been more eerie and creepy in film form.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexism, Suicide, Medical content, and Murder

remuslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Medical content, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: War

Minor: Sexism and Fire/Fire injury

blacksphinx's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Vomit, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Sexism, Suicide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drowning

cowardlyteaman's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Ouch

Unfortunately, this did not hold up to my expectations.

First of all, I don't see the need for this fictional world that Kingfisher has created. She spends valuable pages explaining a world that isn't relevant to her story. That's not to say that I don't like it, but I wish she would've chosen one or the other—fantasy novel or a short horror story.
Because the mystery doesn't really start until the book is nearly done. I never really got the feeling of something ominous or even anticipation for what happened next. Well, that isn't entirely true. The part about the rabbits really intrigued me! But Kingfisher's writing style here seems too—rushed. She's moved on to the next point before she ever lets the last impression set in. I want more detail—insight into the characters.
Still, I like that she writes a non-binary character without writing an LGBT novel. I'm gay myself—I have nothing against them, but representation in genres that aren't LGBT is important, I think. Normalises it.

Another thing I'd like to mention, is that I personally didn't like at all the part where the fungus learns to talk and speaks through Madeleine and stuff. It was boring, really. Felt cliché and wasn't actually eerie in the least.

Well, as a whole, I just think the mystery and horror never struck me. I very rarely read horror at all, but I do love Poe's work, so this disappointed me deeply.

However! Not a bad book. As I said, there were parts that intrigued me, but I'd really expected more of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Grief and Alcohol

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Transphobia, Vomit, and War