Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Leech

Would’ve been PEAK if not for the the imo weaker last 15%. Which was excellent for the horror aspect but narratively it was not as strong as The rest of the book.

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charlatte_lee's review against another edition

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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? Yes

5.0

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ghost_of_a_car's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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willow_the_wisp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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bethboo's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I knew nothing about this book other than the title going into it. It gave a mix of Parasyte (manga/anime) and Ancillary Justice, a pleasant mix of sci-fi and horror.

We follow a doctor of the Institute, which is a mind/consciousness that is shared between all it's doctors, unbeknownst to the world. Something has gone wrong up north where the Institute has lost touch with one of it's bodies and they want to get to the bottom of it. Nothing seems to be going right and everything this old being has come to know and what should be easy for the Institute is slipping through their fingers. After their arrival, they discover that some sort of parasite is on the loose in the Baron's estate, but the doctor is losing their grip and can't seem to contain it much less fight it. The Institute has no plan for this.
This book has gothic intrigue and societal scandal and Victorian sci-fi, combining in such a unique story that I feel like this quote from another review sums it all up: "Can you be repulsed and engrossed at the same time??" - Amy Imogene Reads on Goodreads

This one had me on all angles with minimal cringing. I listened to the audio book for this one. I thought the narrator was great though I hated the weird French accent she gave the Baron's son, because it was tough to understand. The world building was amazing by the end of the book where all the pieces fell together, but I will say that about half way through I got a little confused. The characters were the perfect mix of unpleasant, mysterious, and complex. Emile, of course, is baby and should be protected at all costs. The setting is so perfectly gothic, creepy, and Victorian with the plot being such a mix of sci-fi and old fiction. It left me wondering if the MC was just imagining it all, instead of experiencing it. Made it feel dreamy.

Boy, what the Baron's son did was fucking despicable and so sad and makes me hate the author a bit for doing that, but Emile's reactions were so heart wrenching and painful and so accurate, so, I loved the author for that.
The main character doctor was so fascinating, especially when they lost contact with the Institute and they became so desperate. Oh, man, when they were trying to turn Emile, that was so painful. Just such a vast consciousness and old being, shoved into a tiny mind and body must have been hell itself. When they got all messy and sick, making us wonder was this the parasite or just them losing it. And how was this different for the last doctor.
But the author really gave us clues the whole time and I had no clue. And I really like where the author ended it, because I needed for Simone and Emile to be happy and free, but I will say that when I was on that last hour or two, I was like okaaaaayyy where are they going with this.
Now some of the horror bits had me gagging a bit, like the birth scene and the following scene where the parasite crawled out of her and all the bits where the parasite would show itself a little. Yuck.

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storyorc's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

Leech is a gothic tale, featuring howling winter winds, a decrepit old mansion and a rotting noble family inside for our physician protagonist, "the Institute", to treat. As a secret, parasitic hivemind of doctors rather than a single person, the Institute makes for a fresh point of view for the genre. They are driven to untangle the mystery of what killed their predecessor (also part of their hivemind) by extreme curiosity, have little regard for personal safety, and can access expertise from their vast network of bodies at any time - a perfect Holmesian detective, until the situation begins to challenge those advantages.

Both setting and characters enjoyed depth and nuance. The noble son and his wife show their wounds as well as their cruelties, and their land has beautiful ice-monsters as well as lethal storms. It also supports a dwindling native culture of people who lived in caves, sported tails, and worshipped dog gods fallen from the sky. The baron's mute house boy, Emil, is one such descendant and a welcome, though mysterious, bright spot amidst all the rot.

It's a shame the focus drifts away from the Institute as the story unfolds. It leaves in its place a solid gothic mystery and tale of rebellion but these didn't quite fill the hole for me, since exploring such an unusual, morally-grey narrator was my main point of fascination. Learning that the author is a medical student frames the criticisms of the Institute in an interesting way, however; there is much to critisize. The book also continues to explore identity, just

less the Institute's and more its hosts.

Some lines will ring especially true to queer readers.

Recommended for fans of: classical gothic literature, Mexican Gothic, Pathologic (the game), Sherlock Holmes (specifically if you read the books because of the BBC show, not because this is like the BBC show but because if you were a big enough fan of the show to read the books, odds are you're in gay tumblr crowd that would also be into the identity exploration in the second half)

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avi_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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gilroi's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I feel strange for not having more to say about this book, other than it's genuinely some of the best speculative fiction / fantasy / scifi / horror (pick one) I've read in years. It's a smooth, sleek little novel that knows exactly what it's doing and does it. While it's not perfect, I can't think of any flaw great enough to bring up in this review.

I think what I appreciate most about this novel is how much it trusts its readers, how confident it is with what it's trying to do. The twists aren't mindfucks, all reveals are telegraphed well in advance. Every change seems earned, all the dread is meaningful, and in the last sliver of the novel it goes from genre to literary, elegantly straddling both qualifiers to say something interesting, detailed, new, and worthwhile about identity, colonialism, gender, and medicine.

I cannot recommend it enough if you like a story bright with darkness, full of intention, inventive prose, lush worldbuilding, and smart narration.

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