Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

4 reviews

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I only wish that the

comeuppance

deaths were more gory and protracted. It's what they deserved... Hmm. Maybe I relate to

Moremi

more than I initially thought. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Trafficking, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual content, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Body horror, Car accident, and Death

Moderate: Trafficking, Cannibalism, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Rape, Gaslighting, and Sexual content

Minor: Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Deportation, Kidnapping, Vomit, Child death, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Cancer, Confinement, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Self harm, and Transphobia

zenzi2read's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit

jaz_gets_literary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

This book was a wild ride and I absolutely enjoyed every single bit of it. It covers so many topics so please check the trigger warnings before starting. The narration was so good. Some audiobooks you can listen to while you do other things, this is not one of them. While I did listen to this while at the gym and while working, my job is very repetitive. If you have to fully focus on something else while you’re listening to this audiobook, I don’t think you’ll get the best experience. It’s a lot of information and you have to pay attention or you will be confused. I saw that this was classified as horror and I didn’t see it until I realized that what is happening in this book is not that far removed from reality and that’s scary. I love already ordered the physical so that I can annotate it. There were so many moments in this book that I know that I’ll want to look back on. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Classism, and Rape

Minor: Incest, Grief, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

libristella's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

There were things I loved about this book, and other things that didn’t work for me. First of all, I think readers of thrillers will really like this book. As someone who prefers sci-fi and horror, I don’t think I was exactly the right audience. But, I did like many of the characters, I loved the feminism and ableism discussions, and I loved how things started all tying together in the last 20% of the book. 

Among things that didn’t work for me was, firstly, the exposition that made the book seem like it would be a dystopian sci-fi novel. The sci-fi setting, themes, and tropes were all described in a telling rather than showing way, and were also unnecessarily complicated and confusing. I think this story could have been even more effective with the lifespan, consciousness-jumping, and wombcubator elements totally taken out, so a reader could focus on the microchipping, surveillance issues, murder trials, and supernatural elements without getting muddled and confused or slowing down the pace to try to explain. Ultimately for me, there was too much going on in the book to keep track of, especially in the first half, and it took me a while to discern which elements of the plot were most important. I think other great ideas, like the lifespan and consciousness jumping, could have been used in another very interesting story with different plot and issues. 

Secondly, there were parts where the pace was clunky because characters would pause in the middle of a very tense scene to reflect on their feelings or on the past. I don’t think this was needed - some of the exposition, again, only complicated things rather than clarified, and the characters’ values and feelings were clear through their actions without the need for these reflective moments. 

Ultimately I would recommend this book to thriller lovers, as the style reminded me of popular thriller books like Woman in the Window, Girl on the Train, and the Silent Patient - all books that also didn’t work for me but I know are well loved. I also am eager to read other work by this author even though this particular book didn’t quite work for me, especially since through the author bio, I learned that they have published several short stories. I’m looking forward to checking those out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Domestic abuse, Murder, Alcohol, Confinement, Rape, Sexism, Vomit, Infertility, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Ableism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Pedophilia, and Trafficking