Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Pilna burna paukščių

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Pilna burna paukščių by Samanta Schweblin

4 reviews

year23's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Hard book to read given recent events (particularly the story "Heads Against Concrete"). These are unsettling stories - some work better than others.

The first story felt so familiar - I swear I've seen it in movie/tv form. I'm curious to read this author's other novel Fever Dream after this. I think I wanted more from at least half of the stories, but in terms of grappling with the underbelly of humanity and nature, it's successful. The writing is accessible, immediately draws you in and creates a scene, vibe, and strong characters. I want to stay with it - explore the depths more of these little worlds the author creates, but again, not really a short story collection at that point.

Do check the content warnings.

Content Warnings

books_onthe_ground's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This one was confusing for me because there were many aspects that I really enjoyed and many aspects that I didn’t. There were also many aspects that I didn’t understand. That might be because I don’t understand or really know if the Argentinian culture and it’s literature (though I’m very interested in it’s literature now especially after reading Tender is the Flesh which I adored.) Unfortunately I didn’t love this collection. It’s hard to judge a collection as the stories can differ so much so here are some numbers to help you see what my overall thoughts were. I think the Mode rating is a 3 stars. There are 20 stories out of those 20 I rated 19. I couldn’t give one a rating because I just didn’t know what rating fitted it. So out of the 19 I had: one 1 star, four 2 stars, seven 3 stars, five 4 stars and two 5 stars. Give or take a few .5’s that I’ve thrown around.

The main thing that REALLY let down the rating was the inclusion of the f slur (both the 3 letter one and the 6 letter) in stories 5 and 7. These were not needed. They added NOTHING to the story. It is a word I am sensitive to especially the 6 letter word and it did trigger me a bit to see it. That is a word I have bad history with and I don’t respect seeing it without reason and without warning. I have seen no evidence towards her being lgbt either so as far as I’m concerned she has no right to use those words. People, in my opinion, can write narratives different to what they know but within reason and I am highly against people using slurs that they have no right to use with the excuse of literature. You’re still saying a slur and it’s still offensive.

Moving away from that, some stories I really liked and others I found a little boring if I’m honest. A quote from J M Coetzee stated that her word is like “the Grimm brothers” and that she writes “darkly humorous tales”. The daily Mail described this collection as “an eerie blend of the supernatural and the all too real.” The daily Mail I agree with but I wanted MORE. I wasn’t creeped out or spooked at all. I didn’t get any shivers. Some had great atmosphere and there were a few that did border on creepy but were just too short to have much impact. The only exception being stories 14, 16 and 19. But I didn’t like waiting until story 14 out of 20 to get the eeriness I was promised. Many of the stories also just didn’t have a lot going for them in the sense of story, characters, or theme and I feel like even in a short story you need something, anything, to give you a reason to keep reading. I didn’t feel like this collection had a overarching theme or even genre as some stories just felt out of place. Do I regret picking this up? A little bit yes. More because I don’t have a lot of money so it’s sad that it went to something I didn’t love but that’s the gamble of books. Would I recommend this? No. However, I wouldn’t stop anyone from reading this. I would warn them of the slurs obviously but literature, at the end of the day is subjective and apart from what I’ve previously stated I didn’t find anything particularly wrong with this book so others might enjoy it for more than I did. Overall ending feeling as I closed the book was disappointment but not dislike.

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pompurin's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

shereadsshenoms's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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