Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

16 reviews

kmhst25's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

1.5

While the first sections are extremely promising, the book ultimately devolves into male fantasies and fever dreams. I don't know how anyone can take this novel seriously. For example:

• There is one main female character, and she is naked for more than half of all of her appearances.
• There is one secondary female character, and she is naked for all of her appearances. 
• In fact, most of the background women in the book are also naked. Female nudity is basically a theme. Theoretically, a lot of it can be explained by the association of witches with nudity, but there are so many non-witch naked women floating around that that explanation proves flimsy.
• The "Master" is a man who writes one novel that his (barely fleshed out) lover reveres so much that she only calls him Master from then on, and he adopts the name as his own. (He still calls her by her name though, and her defining characteristics are that she's beautiful and that she's devoted to him.) If anyone asks him who he is, he only says, "I'm the Master." The Master conveniently shares several traits and life experiences with the author of this book.
• Later in the novel, it becomes clear that some of the chapters that we have been reading are actually excerpts from the Master's brillaint masterpiece. So not only is he similar to the book's author, but the book's author decides that he is also qualified to write the Master's genius work.

Need I go on?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

paradicsomleves's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Body horror, Violence, and Blood

tamara_joy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Truly bizarre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Racial slurs, Blood, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

jaimemt_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This is a very unique book.  I recommend reading Gogol before attempting this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Religious bigotry

lisztaffe's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

rchatterjee188's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

colleenf's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Torture

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

dark funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

Gorgeous edition, but honestly I'm dreading to ever have to re-read this. It felt like it was never going to end and I'm usually a fast reader. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Infidelity and Racial slurs

It is implied that black cats are rounded up and abused because of their appearance. The word negro is used to describe multiple black characters.

pythonesque's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Infidelity, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Body horror, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Religious bigotry

lisa_m's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

3.5

I finally did it! I finished The Master and Magarita! And I don't know what to say.
I 100% understand why people love this book. It has just been extremely tedious to read and I had to motivate myself a lot to get through it all.

The first 200 pages are basically just world building/ giving the readers all the knowledge they need in order to understand and enjoy the second half. It got really boring for me to the point where I would literally fall asleep after reading 3 pages (multiple times!!). I did not enjoy the first half. There were some very funny bits but most of it was exhausting.

Minor spoilers ahead

When I got to the second half though my opinion changed completely. I still think it's funny that the main protagonist (after whom the book is named!) Only appear halfway into the book. But as soon as we got to meet Magarita I started liking the book. I really enjoyed her character and story. Also the whole Satans Ball was super fun. I also finally felt like I understood Woland and the others.

The whole becoming a witch thing was entertaining and I finally understood why you need the first half because I wouldn't have understood anything in the second part if I hadn't read the first part.

Still I think it's ridiculous that you need to get through 200 pages(!!) to get to the really good part.

I want to give this book 4 stars but I really can't so 3.5 will have to do.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Classism