Reviews tagging 'Death'

Leech by Hiron Ennes

53 reviews

hmstaab's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Body horror, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Physical abuse, Excrement, Infertility, Miscarriage, Colonisation, Death, and Rape

the_gravediggers_society's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Infertility, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

eilif_has_no_gender's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is one of those books where you either love it or you hate it. I loved it personally. 

If you are considering this book LOOK AT CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THE BOOK! I personally had to add a lot. 

Spoiler

This story follows a genderless doctor from a strange organization named The Institution. It does't have a name and later in the book are called The Institution. The reason I referred to it with It/It's/Its is because it is a parasite in control of humans. The story follows a woman who was controlled by The Institution. She eventually escapes a long with her nonhuman friend, Emilè (There is a high chance I misspelled that).

The story has characters who are terrible people (Which I personally love. It shows nonantagonists can be terrible people has well) so if you don't like this this book is for sure not for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, and Child death

Moderate: War, Alcohol, and Miscarriage

Minor: Ableism and Death of parent

eb2701's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

While I think this is a very well conceived and well executed book, I found myself disappointed in what it chose to focus on. While it promised to be a complex exploration of identity and bodily autonomy, I found it to be quite cut and dry and even a bit heavy handed with its moral messaging about autonomy. 

Spoiler

while yes, obviously taking people’s bodies is bad, the Institute makes the point that it has to survive too, and needs human hosts to sustain itself. Is it evil to do what you have to to survive? Parasites are just fulfilling their ecological niche. And the book dismisses this question out of hand and doesn’t pick it up again. I would have been much more interested in grappling with that dilemma than so quickly concluding that no, parasitic lifeforms do not deserve to survive under any circumstances. Similarly, when Simone's personality began to assert itself, I found that I would have much rather been spending more time with the doctor in the second half of the book than having to get to know an entirely new protagonist that I found less interesting than sitting with the uneasy state of being one semi-autonomous disposable body in a collective.

 

That said, the prose is excellent and the structure of the book is very strong. I really enjoyed the throughlines of folklore and supernatural imagery, and the subtextual richness of parasitism as metaphor, parallelism both class oppression and the insidious nature of sexual abuse. The overall gothic framework functions perfectly, and the body horror is great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Body horror, Death, and Murder

oriana095's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

This was an interesting read. It was definitely the kind of book I had to sit down and really focus on what was happening at first to understand what was going on. Once the story was kind of set it was an easier time to get into the story. The development you see with the main character is great. As they go from being one with the Institute to being one with themself you want to keep reading to see what else will happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, and Medical content

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Death, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Rape, Physical abuse, and Murder

justinecm's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Gore, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Body horror, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicide, Genocide, and Alcohol

voxvenati's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

Unique and goddamn refreshing. I earnestly cannot say I’ve read something like this before, and it was so very welcome.

So many of the things I could say in favor of this book are spoilers, but even the premise alone is a treat. I can’t express how often I’m let down after a promising synopsis and excellent first chapter. This was not one of those times.

Every chapter builds. Tension. Drama. Intrigue. Every character was crisp and distinct. Every nugget of world building fascinated me. The dialect of the locals. The fables. The history. I am left wanting. Ravenous for more.

It’s dense. It can be clinical at times. I loved it because it fits the narrative. And it does start to change.

Spoiler

I have never had a book reveal the narrator’s pronouns/gender so deep into the story, only to have me second guessing all my previous assumptions.

I have never had such a seamless experience reading about LGBTQ+ characters where they just are. It isn’t clumsy or ham-fisted. It’s natural. It’s real. It was so fucking good.

And my dear dead gods, the slow reveal of the post-apocalypse, that the Institute and Pseudomycota are a part of that of that too? Exquisite.

The only reason this wasn’t a full 5 stars is because I never got that overwhelming sense of dread. Still, pretty damn close.

This is all said with the understanding this is a horror. There are some difficult topics. There is medical horror, body horror, and all sorts of other things. Read the content warnings if you have triggers. 

But if the premise piques your interest, and if you’re not too squeamish, this is a must read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Suicide, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

Minor: Eating disorder, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism

whimsywacko0o's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Body horror, and Sexual assault

beetitnerds's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Child death, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, and Death

uncreativeoops's review against another edition

The worldbuilding was fascinating, but I just couldn't deal with the characters making one stupid choice after another. Some of them were also comically evil or unbelievably cliché.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Gore, Violence, Alcoholism, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Body horror, Death, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide