Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

148 reviews

tinny's review against another edition

funny mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

A non traditional female protagonist, food and industry commentary, a bittersweet after taste...these are all things I love and things this book has in spades. However, I didn't love this book! Maybe it was the odd pacing (lagging in the middle and sudden tension at the end ) or that I felt the main character's choices at the end didn't make any sense. Dorothy throughout the book has demonstrated extreme control over herself. The character Emma disappears for most of the book and suddenly reappears to play a key role at the end. This book makes little narrative sense to me unless I read it as a tale about a woman self destructing [ which I think defeats my perceived purpose of the book: a woman's undying strength to be herself and to be uncompromising ] .

Good prose though, had some witty moments with cultural insights. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Violence and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Rape

vixenreader's review against another edition

challenging dark lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.0

As distasteful of a novel as going to a slaughterhouse to see where your steak comes from, it is still a compelling character study about the worst person to serve at any fine dining establishment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Fatphobia, Rape, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Excrement, Police brutality, and Medical content

Be aware that this text deals with sex intermingling with slaughter, bigotry towards polyamory, rimming, BDSM, butchering humans for food, imprisonment, tasteless sexual quips, and self-righteous opinions about food.

ellsuh's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

sheianus's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Made my mouth water, made me gag a bit, and made me curious about what I’d taste like?
I appreciated how the narrator is a middle aged woman, as I feel we don’t read these types of stories with that demographic as the MC. It feels a lot more fleshed out as she takes us through her life and all these events that coalesce to bring us to where we find her. She’s lived a good amount of life and I feel the story shows that well. The story is told by an unreliable narcissist, and it definitely shows! But I like it all the more for that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Murder

alexiasambrano's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

A beautifully written book about the darkest and most horrific actions a human being could ever partake in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, and Death of parent

gnpunpun's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

weirdly makes you think while also being very gross but very easy to pick up and not put down because of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Violence, Blood, and Murder

thenoboshow's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

The writing captured the pretention of the writers career in food journalism. As most people who eat with their eyes I feel like I could have been more excited about the storytelling in a visual format like a movie or TV show. Living in the head of the main character didn't give us the space to empathize with her nor the distance to understand the charisma that must have existed to allow her to move through the world as she did. A third perspective would have really served.

courtnyklly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

• unreliable narrator
• characters you hate 
• over descriptive food talk that will leave you hungry 
• over descriptive murder and gore that will leave you reeling 
• chaotic evil female energy 
• burn the patriarchy taken to the absolute extreme
• bizarre hannibal lector vibes if hannibal lector was an upper class white woman in her 40s 

but also:
• long tangents that are mostly irrelevant sub-information
• an unshocking “twist”
• two murders that we didn’t get to hear about that i would’ve preferred over some of the random stuff that was included
• a slow moving (sometimes confusing) account of the life of someone who is extremely unlikeable except for the fact you want to know how she ended up in prison

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

ewwa18's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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: Body horror, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

tsubibo's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

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

1.75

Whoever says that this book is girl boss is a big fat liar!!

It talks about very surface-level things but adorned with pretty words. I do appreciate the new words I've learned, but it is so try-hard. I found it to be very hollow and hard to believe, and I love me some ridiculous things, but this was not it (for me). Every line I read, instead of seeing the character, I saw the author and how hard she was trying to make one-liners. Now I don't mind the topics that the mc talks about, but it writes in such a way to make it seem grand when it really isn't. It felt like reading a wattpad fantasy. I had to listen to this book in text to speech while doing laundry... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Rape