Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

L'amore bugiardo by Gillian Flynn

25 reviews

mashtonok's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Was interested in the first half, then invested for 20 pages of act 2, then completely uninterested in anything said or done until the last 30 pages. The last 30 had me hooked. This was a roller coaster of whether I wanted to finish the book or not. 

The writing itself was super vivid, and the characters' voices were super strong. Glad I decided to finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Fatphobia, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Body shaming, Infertility, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Stalking

bxnnny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

what a wild ride. i, of course, knew what happens due to seeing the movie when it first came out, but i couldn't resist reading the book for a deeper dive into the insanity that is these characters. i love gillian flynn's almost feverish writing style and her ability to create such complex characters. i enjoyed this battle of the unreliable narrators and enjoyed getting a deeper understanding at amy and nick and why they are the way they are. this was a great time, truly. absolutely nuts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Body horror and Violence

Minor: Blood

mermaidread's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Misogyny, Sexual content, Vomit, and Alcohol

alyc00per's review against another edition

funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

nanditha14's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

The plot twists are good. The book is difficult to get through because everyone is so intensely unlikable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Pregnancy

angelaainnes's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Blood

rowanelisa's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

fleabagb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

0.5

 I hate to say this because this book was on my list for so long and I truly was enjoying myself so very much until I hit this part with a chapter from the perspective of Amy she had described two fat people in such a horrific way I annotated it how disappointed I was and that I truly thought that was the end of the road with me and this book. After sitting on it for a few days I have decided to DNF this book because of the verbiage used to depict characters of a bigger size. I was heartbroken reading this. It was downright fatphobic, harmful and absolutely unnecessary as these character were literally just filler, so it felt like an even bigger hit when Gillian chose to hit on that topic in a scene where it added nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. I guess it just goes to show just how casual fatphobia is and has become in our social environment. And I can't speak for you, but for me, for myself, my own sense of self and pride - I absolutely cannot forgive someone for writing characters that let's be honest, look like me, in such a wrenching way. Not to mention the characters she chose to shame had no big impact role in the story other than this hatred-spewing spiral she went on about "how dare a fat mushroom tummied person utilize the same resources as she does, how dare they be sitting down and fat, who knows if they're disabled but to hell with them!" Shame on you Gillian, shame on you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.5

This book is vicious. I adore how you never truly like or trust Nick and Amy. You always feel that there is something we as an audience dont know. I mean I can't help but root for Amy as a girls girl but both Nick and Amy are hardcore narcissistic sociopaths. They both truly believe that they're in the right and the other deserves death or jail time. Its amazing how Flynn makes both Dunnes people you hope make it out and people you hope go to prison. I just wish it was formatted a little more comprehensively. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

hannahmg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.0

 0/1 overall
1/2 writing/structure/character creation
1/2 enjoyment

I would not recommend this book.

Overall I did not enjoy this book, the first 250 page were not needed and were poorly written, the last 50 pages were as bad as the first part of the book. I only enjoyed a small snippet of the book. The length of this triller is way to long and unnecessary. I felt like I was reading a first draft of a idea.

The writing was partly smart with good ideas but poorly done, the journal extracts giving us a unreliable pov which was smart, reminded me of Dracula, but this was done in a manner which made it worthless, more dialogue than actually description, this was so unrealistic it was unnecessary to make it seem like a dairy. Nicks pov was closer to a dairy than Amy's own dairy entries. The repetition was unbearable, -yes Nick we get it you have a mistress and she is young, very young, and pretty.
The character creation was immense and well though through, Amy and Nick are both so realistic but fucked up at the same time. This is one of the major reasons it is a two and not a one star review.

I thought there was a lot of unnecessary added details, the level of Misogyny and sexism was not needed and weakly touched on at the end. Specifically the character of Nick's father who has Dementia and becomes extremely misogynistic, with the use of the slur "bitch" in both his speech and Nicks thoughts. Why add this, I just think the book would of been fine without it and it didn't feel like a representation of any sorts but more a tick for the check list and even excusing the behaviour.

I was very disappointed in the trigger warning list i found (Storygraph). Yes it is a thriller, we should expect triggering things but at the end of the day the book should have a page of trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail