Reviews tagging Body horror

Foundryside, by Robert Jackson Bennett

23 reviews

w33nr's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Blood, Classism, Body horror, Sexual assault, and Gore

ptaradactyl's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Interesting and unique. I will admit to skimming over lots of the explanations of how magic was being worked and just going with “yep, magic!” 

The romance didn’t go the way I expected, but that was fine too

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Slavery, and Violence

danny_thereader's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Slavery

kell_xavi's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

2.5

There were a few things I liked about this book, but it’s a case where a combination of length and unpleasant tropes brought it down in my esteem the further along the plot went. There’s a kind of fantasy novel that is concerned with magic that is often mechanic, often acts on the human body, is often a curse of gothic body horror, and almost always has someone sadistic and mad with jealous power at its heart. I’ve read a few of these books, and I can feel the dread creep in as I figure out that they’re going in this direction. 

Bennett’s basic world-building is kind of cool, though (and this may also be an element of the kind of book I’ve just described) perhaps not to the well-trained, in-depth fantasy reader. The idea that codes can train objects to act like other objects, essentially as though their reality is different and specific to another thing, is intriguing. The scrivers and fabricators, lexicons and Sancia’s powers are all fascinating. The problem is that a lot of the mythology is really complex, the advanced scrived designs get a bit out of hand, and Bennett ends up juggling a lot of stuff that, despite sometimes lengthy explanations, is often a mix of suspension of disbelief and deus ex machina. Which would be a good joke, considering how much of the story deals with gods, machines, advanced beings, magic cyborgs, and the like, except that the piling up of all these pieces sort of cracks the foundations that the story is built on. I was never sure, when the characters refer to god (as in, “god help me” etc.), which god they speak of, since there’s no religion mentioned and the distant past is legend. They also swear way too much, all said, so that it became a distraction and the characters blended together at times; and this alternate universe looks a lot like steampunk 19th century Italy.  

Some of the reveals about the key, about Sancia, are moving, but there’s a way to write trauma without putting that trauma in the reader, and Bennett was not interested in doing so. There’s an abundance of scenes of torture, war, enslavement, of misogyny, of medical trials, of starvation and mutilation, a lot of which I didn’t feel served it’s purpose. It’s a terrible world that’s terrible to live in. Sancia is a scrappy thief with a weird curse, and one of the few people worth rooting for. Mostly, these circumstances made me less likely to read the rest of the trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Slavery, War, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Misogyny, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Body horror, and Colonisation

Minor: Vomit, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

iforgotilivedhere's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I loved this book! It was so so good but I had problems near the end.

Spoiler

Near the end whenever Sancia and her crew are trying to get the imperiat and Clef back, we had a whole section of them just going over scientific and boring shit that could of been easily summarized in a paragraph or just a page.

 
That was really my only problem. I’m so exited to see how Sancia and Berenice’s relationship grows. I’m so exited for some good sapphic romance!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Torture, Blood, Body horror, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Sexism

Minor: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Classism, Cursing, and Bullying

c_hope_b's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual harassment, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Slavery, Death, and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Colonisation and Excrement

rossandhissandwich's review

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Death, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Vomit, Classism, and Car accident

Minor: Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, and War

spacecurl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5

I picked this book up because I loved the cover, it's stunningly beautiful. It has been a while since I read a fantasy book with a lot of world building so it took me a little bit to get into, but the magic system was really interesting and the highly flawed characters that learned to work with each other over the course of the book was really fun to read. 

It was a bit gruesome in parts which took me by surprise, but it matches the overall story and atmosphere of the book so it was tolerable to my soft heart haha

All in all I really enjoyed this book and will be reading the other two in the series in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Vomit, Violence, Slavery, and Body horror

Moderate: Death, Excrement, Gore, Murder, Car accident, and Classism

Minor: Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Misogyny, and War

faduma's review

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Body horror, Confinement, Injury/injury detail, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

kassidyreads's review

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, and Slavery

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, War, Sexual assault, Confinement, and Torture