Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Little Mushroom: Judgment Day by Shisi

10 reviews

imlikesia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

What does it mean to be human, and why does it matter? 

Is this book as good as people say it is? No, because it’s better. 

I would highly recommend Little Mushroom to anyone in a reading slump. It’s been a while since I read a book in one sitting, and I finished both volumes in less than 24 hours. 

Shisi writes uniquely and wonderfully. It was sad, really sad at times, but profound. It delves into themes of morality and makes you think about humanity in so many different ways. Heavy themes are explored in a subtle, ordinary manner, so it doesn’t feel overwhelming, until it does. 

I hope to read many novels like this one, but I’m not quite sure they exist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War

kat5502's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death and Sexual assault

lumidouce's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, and War

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Pregnancy and Sexual harassment

koalala1031's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I got curious of this one because I saw someone asking about it on Twitter, and tbh this is the first time I seriously read danmei I think (excluding that one time I didn't finish mdsz fan translation)

It was mostly dark and tense, but the romantic moments were actually cute, I couldn't help but smile a bit. The ending actually made me curious of how the story would continue 

I need to catch up with the 2nd book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual harassment

ysvngah's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

IT WAS SO GOOD 😭 - Made me literally question reality

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Trafficking, and Cannibalism

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, and Sexual harassment

halfcactus's review against another edition

dark sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.5

Post-apocalyptic novel where gene contamination has caused inter-species mutation all over the world. And the more that humans try to keep their biological humanity intact and survive as a species, the less human they become.

I didn't expect this book to be as bleak as it was but in retrospect it's pretty thematic. It pursues the question of "how far are humans willing to go?" wholly and unflinchingly, and it allows you to inhabit an interesting emotional space as the events unfold before the eyes of a mushroom who has absorbed human genes but doesn't experience emotions or attachment the way that humans (and by extension, the novel readers) do. There is some comedy and humor in between all the horror, so it's not horrifying the whole way but it was still terrible, lol.

I really loved the first chapter: it draws you in atmospherically and emotionally, with the right amount of mystery to make you keep reading, as the information that's filtered through An Zhe's PoV comes to you piece by piece. The visual aspects of the story are beautifully, vividly rendered, but the worldbuilding is pretty shaky so it was hard for me to predict which details would be plot-relevant or not because there were some aspects that seemed like they could be a cause for concern.

I did get a better handle on the storytelling style and its themes in the second half (Roses), which had a longer series of intertwined mysteries and plot points.

I really enjoyed the writing when An Zhe was simply being a mushroom thinking mushroomy thoughts that had nothing at all to do with humans. The action-horror chapters are very well done too (those were the ones I couldn't stop reading).

Vol2 ends at a really good place where it's not a sudden cliffhanger but still leaves you with all the unanswered questions that An Zhe wasn't invested in finding out.

English translation had good parts, and is generally readable, but felt pretty rough and severely underedited, especially towards the end (or maybe I just got tired idk).

CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror, gore, giant bugs and worms (horrifying), attempted rape, racism/weird depiction of racism at the beginning (not in the English translation)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

spaceoctopi's review

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, and War

aardwyrm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

Soft worldbuilding has its pitfalls, and it's frequently hard to keep track of things like themes and stakes, which make following the story a little challenging. It's all vibes, but those vibes are pretty neat, with a semi-supernatural nature's revenge apocalypse that evokes nothing so much as Nausicaa, and strange, prickly, very fallible characters. Just. Don't think too hard. If anything, a nice change from all the mushroom horror that seems to be the style of these times. A pleasant mushroom who's a pretty good little guy is refreshing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

marinehaddock's review

Lu Feng said I will have no redeeming character traits, but I WILL do eugenics while attempting to gently hold An Zhe; a person who is completely uncomfortable with me.
I am a Josh apologist.  I don't feel he deserved any of the shit he got in this book.  He's 19 for fuck sake.
And this is one of those stories where literally everyone dies all the time except for the protagonists and I just don't jive with that.  I find it cheap.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Rape, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child death, Self harm, and Death of parent

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse and Homophobia