Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott

20 reviews

fiaharringbook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was a life-changer for me. It was like Get Out but make it Indigenous Canadian, meets Everything Everywhere All at Once or Interstellar. The scope of imagination, creativity and originality in the way this story was told was gob-smacking. My favourite book of the year so far, absolutely bloody exquisite, I cannot recommend enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

caitlinxreads's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Blood, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Colonisation

alicelalicon's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

baileyanabella's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

... just wow. I am going to be thinking about this book for a long, long time. My first completed title from the 2024 Women's prize longlist, and if the rest of them hold a candle to this one then we are in for a real treat.
Slight spoiler alert in the content warnings - but if you are sensitive to dark themes I recommend looking over them, there is a lot in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Alcohol

jessicakornelsen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

georgiaaa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Loved the story, loved the unreliable narrator. Only rated lower because I wanted more horror!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, and Cannibalism

drownedinfictionx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

L

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Classism

tenderbench's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective relaxing 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Racism, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

careinthelibrary's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

2.5

This follow-up to Alicia Elliott's memoir A Mind Spread Out on the Ground covers a lot of the same topics as her debut, but confronts those realities in challenging and surprising ways. 

I struggled with how slow the first half was. It was slowly building to something, but I was impatient to get into the horrific and the shocking. It deals with some heavy topics like post-partum mental health, Indigenous motherhood being intensely scrutinized, MMIWG2S, and academia's fascination and appropriation of Indigenous knowledge and stories.

The second half really takes off and I was both *here for it* and also very confused. It is full of twists and turns and definitely held my attention as its pacing sped up. Those topics that were introduced in the first half fall to the wayside a bit in exchange for gory body horror.

The book jumps from domestic fiction with a graphic, horror twist to a confusing sci-fi conclusion. I wish it had kept its horror genre throughout and maintained its clear message because I felt the last 10% fizzled out. I'm not quite sure where it leaves the protagonist and her family.

I can feel the influence of Cherie Dimaline in And Then She Fell's dark, urban fantasy vibes and fans of her work will want to check this out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment

our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

And Then She Fell touched on and went deep into hard topics surrounding PPD, being the birthing parent, mental illness and racism against Native persons. There are words in the Mohawk language which I didn’t know them and had to look up, which resulted in either finding the meaning or not finding anything...there's no guide in the book on what most of them mean or proper pronunciation. 
Anyways, this was a good book, I personally don't class this as Horror, but I recommend it if you want to read a psychological thriller.

Also, please make sure you read all TW/CW.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Rape, Abortion, Murder, and Abandonment