DNF-ed at 15%

This book definitely caught my attention by its intriguing premise. I absolutely loved the idea of advance science and technology being used at great yet frightening heights, especially if a sort-of anti-hero character is being featured. I even like the promise of it being a book full of gore and content warnings, since I could handle those things well.

Unfortunately, Bodies: A Romantic Bloodbath just didn't live up to that promise. It has a fairly easy writing and storytelling style, so it's easy to get into it. However, I didn't exactly vibe with the carelessness of how sensitive topics such as the abuse and murder were done. I don't easily get unwell regarding any possible content warnings, but I definitely got triggered by this - and not in a good way. The events were very farfetched, and I've been waiting for everything to connect.

It just had a lot of promise, but it was already failing to deliver for me from the start.

This book is not really for me. It's gross and triggering, while I expected this in the book, I feel like it was not presented in a way that allowed me to process what the book is trying to say. I personally don't have to like a book to acknowledge that there is a good message lying underneath it, yet with this book, I never really felt like I got to the message at all, instead it just came across as misogynistic and sex-crazed.

DNFed

This is definitely a unique read. It is not for everyone and has a lot of triggers in it. When you read it you need to have an open mind and not compare it to anything else as it is a unique read. It moves along at a good pace, has characters that you want to know more about and you want to know what makes them click. The story will either grab you or not. But give it a chance you never know.

It took a bit for me to get into this book and at first I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it. It jumped around a bit but about halfway through I got more into the story and by the end I really enjoyed it. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart as it does get pretty violent and graphic at times, but the commentary on the nature of humans especially today is really compelling (even though it takes place in a hypothetical future).

I feel like this is a love it or hate it kind of book. and I sadly feel it fell on the hate it side. The mysogeny was palpable. You could feel the hatred for women on every page. I really tried to like this one. I went in with really high hopes. The blurb sounded incredible. It just wasnt for me

Hard to read at times and filled with triggers. I think readers will need to know about these so someone doesn't pick this up who is not fully warned about the content. I could see it being hard for people to read. Personally, I just didn't enjoy it.

The concept of this book had huge potential. Unfortunately, it fell way short for me with the writing. I understand that is an ongoing theme for this book but I believe my problems with the writing are slightly different than most reviews. Yes, the book has some cringe worthy, trigger warning issues. But I just all and around think the book is rushed. The content is rushed, which was the biggest let down for me.

This is in the horror genre so I expect some not all that great things to happen but it’s a bit vulgar for my taste. Just the way scenes are describes and things like that.

Unfortunately, I DNF’d this at 30%. I wish the story was a longer version of Vincent’s cloning and not multiple stories for the same effect. If this was a complete book with the content from the first 25% or so I think this could have been an amazing book. But I just couldn’t get through the rest. I wasn’t interested and was kind of like over it.

Book Review for Bodies: A Romantic Bloodbath
Full review for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

I really appreciate the author's honest admission that he knew what he was writing and wanted to go there. He was looking for the "shock value". The author got it. I know I was shocked but at the same time appalled and disappointed with this book.

Let me explain:

I was appalled because of the derogatory way in which the female clones were portrayed in the first part of the story. They were used as sex objects. Now for the disappointment. I was disappointed/bored by the latter two thirds of this book. It kind of had the feel of a futuristic story which I liked but it was like I was reading two different books. I got the tie in from the first part of the story to the other part but I was not looking for a futuristic story but a horror story.

To be honest, I was expecting a bunch of gore and gruesome scenes. Especially from the book cover, the title of the book and the warning that comes with the book. So for me this book was a sad fail. I would have been fine even with the "shock value" if it had been portrayed in another way.

ooooh baby get ready for a ~rant review~

This book is a misogynist's wet dream. Truly. I could feel the visceral hatred of women on every. page.

This novel is told like some sort of bloody sci-fi version of Love, Actually, except these individual stories just… never come together. The puzzle pieces of Bodies: A Romantic Bloodbath simply do not fit. One character has his chapters told in first person, and everyone else has theirs in third person, except half the time Mikheyev just randomly switches whose perspective the chapter is supposed to be following.

Honestly, this book could have been so freaking good. We could have had an exciting, black-mirror-esqe sci-fi thriller with themes morality, purpose, mental illness in the age of advanced technology; we could have had conversations about the literal joke that is the “American Dream”, about rampant conservatism in America, about the way the top 1% have our politicians in their gucci-lined pockets. The novel could have even delved into some questions about what it means to be human, questions we might have to start asking ourselves for real very soon, with the advancement of technology, AI, human genome testing, ect.

Instead we get a sex crazed, turtle-paced book with just a hint of political intrigue that goes literally nowhere and a crap load of thinly-veiled misogyny. Nearly every guy in the book wants to r*pe or kill women, almost every girl in the book thinks other girls are “sluts” and “bitches” and “wh0res” and “c*nts”. For a book so filled with needless sex (AMONG MINORS),we hardly get any sex scenes about female pleasure.

There were issues plot wise, too. For instance, clones are a part of every day life but when a man - one actively involved in assassinating and replacing people - gets a call from his dead wife, his first assumption is that he’s died and gone to heaven? And not that someone had cloned her? What??

Or when Sara, in one chapter, is surprised when he mom tells her her dad used to be a romantic -

“‘What? Daddy was once a romantic?’ Sarah had asked her mother, surprised.” [68]

and then 10 pages later, cried to her boyfriend Leo -

“Mom and dad were perfect. They were perfect up until last year. It’s like something happened. Dad just… I don’t know. He changed. He used to be so sweet and romantic and tender.” [81]

Like, huh??? So did you know he was romantic or not??

Oh, and the big ~mystery~ mentioned in the blurb about bodies showing up on Leo's doorstep, the one that made me think this was an actual thriller? It’s touched on in the beginning and not talked about again until 90% INTO THE BOOK.

Also, there’s just… no conclusion. Leo finds his way to the Outpost, the wilderness society where the people who escaped their assassinations go, the Counsellor kills the president clone, the Queen is still a clone, Vince just killed his son, and that’s… it. There’s no big conflict, there’s no wrap up, no comeuppance, and it’s not even a cliffhanger because there’s no second novel (not that I would read it, anyway). It just ends. And I wasted like 8 hours of my life reading it.

Honestly, the whole thing just felt so f*cking hopeless. What was the point?? Oh, but don’t worry! The author provided the longest author’s note I’ve ever read in a book to assure us that there definitely ~was~ a point and that you probably ~just didn’t get it~

Mikheyev tries to say all the dead bodies in the novel are a “metaphor for the people we kill on a daily basis, with our words, our actions, and our emotions”???

Some other great little excerpts from him are:

“I wanted to paint Vince Nilsson… as the little voice inside all of our little heads. He’s not evil. Not really. Vince is all of us.”

VINCE?? You mean the guy who murdered the girl who broke up with him because she couldn’t accept his “perfection”, cloned her, fucked her, killed her again when she had too much personality for him, cloned her, r*ped her, killed her, on repeat until he realized he could never “perfect” her, killed HIMSELF, and let his clone take his place??

Yeah, I’m pretty sure i don’t have a voice like Vince in my head.

“‘I will never write a novel that includes rape scenes,’ I remember telling myself. ‘I will never join the BDSM bandwagon and talk about women and sex and lovemaking as if it were some animalistic, beastly activity reserved for low-class monsters that have no sense of dignity or self worth.’”

Yeah, I wish you hadn’t.

“And then something happened.”

Oh, god.

Someone take microsoft word away from men, please. I’m begging you.

Or maybe I just ~didn't get it~

This did not make sense. It did not capture my attention. The way the author chose to use words is odd. Could've been better uses of words. Sexism evident. Not realistic in terms of the characters being teenagers and obsessed with s*x. I don't recommend to anyone.

It was hard to read this book. It very good written. I love the style, I love the idea of the story. A brilliant mind of sociopath, Vincent, who is capable of creating clones, is absolutely awesome. It's a good thriller too. It's pretty interesting and the pacing it's perfect.
But, this book wasn't for me. I wasn't prepared for it because of triggers. Tw: sexual abuse, murder, psychological abuse, physical abuse.
If you can manage all this you will find a very nice and interesting read. Because it's good, it's very good.

This was an interesting and intriguing book but at the same time it was also eerie and creepy AF. To think someone can request the perfect mate all because of gene harvesting and kill off the host... gives me the heebee jeebies. This idea comes to fruition by Vince when he is dumped by his sorta girlfriend, Melissa. Later he makes a business out of this for people around the world called Emergence seeking his help. Is it ethical? Is it murder? You will have to read yourself to find out!

DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED!! Not your usual thriller and getting this at publishing to own!

Thanks to Netgalley, Moses Yuriyvich Mikheyev and Emergence Inc for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 5/25/21

Vince Nilsson a high school genius kid is in love with Melissa. However, Melissa rejects him and Vince decides to take revenge by cloning the perfect version of Melissa for himself. So he sets about to kill Melissa and obtain her DNA.

What follows is a weird tale of cloning that takes place repeatedly in an effort to obtain the perfect version of Melissa. In a futuristic setting, it followed several characters in their experiences with illegal cloning and a mysterious corporation named Emergence.

Trigger warnings:
graphic content, explicit language, profanity, sex, suicide, violence, abuse, rape, death.

Summary:
The author's writing is brilliant and so captivating. However, it was not my cup of tea. If you love sci-fi, romance, horror, and techno-thrillers, then this just might be your next read

I would like to thank Moses and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It’s always a bold move to try and appeal to fans of such and such an author, in this case Stephen King. Bodies: A Romantic Bloodbath began with the introduction of Vince Nilsson, a misogynistic high school genius that just happened to be the most capable murderer in the world (seriously, he completely aced that totally unrealistic double murder in the beginning), as well as the sole individual responsible for perfecting human cloning. Let’s face it, clones replacing people is thought-provoking in itself, so the potential was definitely there, but it missed the mark. The truth is that I found so SO many issues here, and it wasn’t the graphic content I didn’t connect with – my tastes lean toward mature themes in general – but more at just how disjointed and uneventful the entire book felt from the get-go. The POV constantly shifted from first-person to third, and there were pages and pages of chunky dialogue with multiple characters making nonsensical decisions – I was either in a state of boredom or disbelief. The bouts of violence and death that did occur were either glossed over or, as I mentioned above, extremely far-fetched. I really believe it could’ve benefited from more extensive feedback overall.

In conclusion: I didn’t like Bodies: A Romantic Bloodbath, but I’ll admit it touched on some interesting subjects relating to identity. In a futuristic setting, it followed several characters in their experiences with illegal cloning and a mysterious corporation named Emergence. I had a difficult time getting through it, all told, as the majority was either people sitting around talking philosophy or making stupidly ridiculous mistakes.

It just wasn’t for me, I’m afraid.

I give it a 2 just because the premise of this book is good, but the rest of the story, for me, it's all over the place.

I was so intrigued by the blurb and immediately requested an ARC. The very first chapter about Vince who was obsessed with his girlfriend and then killed her and then clones her to make a perfect Melissa sounds disturbingly good. But after that, it went downhill. Like I said it was all over the place. Too many characters and not a single one I feel attached to. I almost DNFed it but the book is readable and honestly, the world-building is good. Also, I'm curious about the ending. But then again the ending disappoints me.

This book has a lot of trigger warnings. The ones that really affected me are the dehumanization and degrading toward women.

I found this under the YA section since some of the POVs are from a highschooler, but I don't think it suits since, in my opinion, it was too graphic for YA readers.

Trigger warnings: sex scenes, rape, suicide, mass shooting, abuse, rape, etc.

❗Thank you to the author for giving me the ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review❗

First and foremost, a special thank you to Net Galley for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review.

With that out there, I have to say if I’m being honest I feel like I’m usually pretty generous with my ratings. If it’s keeping my attention, it’s usually a three star read.

This, however, kept my attention until about 18% in, where I became so disgusted with the characters attitude and thoughts that I just could not longer pay attention. There are so many issues with this book. I feel like what this book was trying to do could have been done so much better. The only thing this book had that was up to par was the science and research that went into the cloning aspect, which I feel like was this authors strong suit. This is the only thing I found pleasant about this book.

The main character was extremely over the top. His thoughts were pretty much all over the place, which I understand was the point but as a reader I found this portrayal of it very difficult to read. I didn’t understand his motivations, and the dates and times of certain things that had to do with the cloning didn’t line up. I didn’t see much of a gradual progression from “ I want to clone my girlfriend so she can love me” to “I want multiple sex slaves that will do whatever I want while I verbally abuse and degrade them.” I felt that the progression between these two emotions in our character were very out of the blue, and there weren’t many events that could hand logically led to this solution.

Honestly, I really disliked this read. Overall I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who wants a good story, but if you want to learn about cloning in a sub-par environment, this might be the book for you.

This story had a lot of interesting ideas, but it fell short for me in many ways. The POV shift from Vince to Leo was jarring. The story focuses on Vince for four chapters and then suddenly Leo is introduced as the main character, and Vince rarely makes an appearance again. Right around the time I was getting into the story and interested in finding out what happened to Vince, there is a time jump and Vince is barely in the story anymore. It's a very risky storytelling move that didn't pay off for me. I did eventually like Leo, but it took awhile because he's quite bland in comparison to Vince, and I almost stopped reading a few times once the story shifted to mostly Leo's POV.

There seemed to be a lot of aborted arcs. For instance, there was a segment on how they were having trouble cloning a certain character, and then later on that is no longer an issue. I don't understand why the author would make a big deal about how they couldn't clone this character for some reason, as if they were special, and then not mention it ever again. It makes me think it might have been a different story line the author was planning on exploring, but forgot to remove this part when the author aborted the arc.

Also, when Leo realizes some bad people are after him and his girlfriend, he decides to take her on a date? Instead of trying to flee or get help from authorities? And he ends up trying to have sex with her, presumably while driving? Leo isn't the brightest, but all of this felt very artificial and out of character. It also ruined the tension that the story had been building up until that point. I honestly though maybe the "date" had been a ploy. It would have made a lot more sense. When I realized that the date was not a ploy, I was incredibly frustrated with the illogical turn the story took.

I also find it weird that someone who supposedly loved a clone would call the original girl she was cloned from "the real [character name]". Maybe "the original " or "the human version", but not "the real [character name]" because that implies the clone was fake. The language seemed inconsistent with what someone who loved a clone would say.

The subplot with Leo's sister was unnecessary. Had the author decided to go somewhere with it after a major incident I won't spoil here, it could have been interesting. As it stands now, it just feels like a thing that happened instead of something related directly to the main story line.

Speaking of the main story, there seemed to be two stories in this. First the story of how and why Vince invented cloning, and then Leo and his friends/girlfriend dealing with the affects of cloning. Both stories had good moments, but they felt rather disconnected. I'm not sure why we had to have Vince's story to understand Leo's story, and vice versa. I thought this book was going to be a commentary on misogyny based on the first four chapters and how Vince treated the clones. That's why I tolerated the abusive language and uncomfortable scenes in the first few chapters. But after reading the entire book and seeing it wasn't really a commentary on misogyny but just relationships and existence as a whole, I'm not sure all of that was necessary, and it feels weirdly out of tone with the rest of the novel.

I really struggle with giving this a 2 or a 3. It feels more like a 2.5 to me. I liked a lot of the ideas mentioned, like a civil war over cloning. I liked Sara and Leo. I thought Vince was a compelling villain (although I wish he was in the story more in the second and third acts). There were some very interesting ideas explored and some well-written passages. But there was also a lot of nonsense plot points (I really can't get over Leo and Sara going on a casual date when Leo knows people are after them and having sex while driving, wtf?), inconsistent character motivation, and other things that were frustrating to read.

I think this book needed at least one good revision from a developmental editor (or maybe one more revision, if an editor did go over it). Not proofreading, but a good developmental edit to remove scenes that appear to be leftovers from aborted arcs and make sense of some of the more jarring parts of the story. Maybe they could have done something to help make the scenes between Part One and Part Two not feel so disconnected, and to create more cohesion in the story, because at times, the second and third act felt all over the place, like introducing new POVs with characters we've never met in the middle of a chapter.

If you asked me to explain the main story line, I would struggle a bit because there was just so much going on, and it seems only a little of it connected. I'm also not entirely sure what the climax of the novel is supposed to be.

Also one more thing. Vince is a far more compelling character because he's a character with agency. He has a problem (Melissa doesn't love him) and he attempts to fix it. It doesn't work, so he tries something new. Leo is mostly a reactive character. He reacts to Sara. He reacts to the antagonists in the story. He doesn't really seem to make a lot of choices that affect the plot. I've enjoyed stories with reactive characters before, but switching from a character that directly drives the plot to one that is mostly just reacting to his environment is probably another reason why I started to lose interest after the POV switch.

Like I said, I really want to give this a 2.5 because my feelings are somewhere between liking it and disliking it. I think I'm disappointed because with some developmental edits, this could have been much better. It just missed the mark with me and left me thinking more about what could have been rather than the story that I actually read. I want to give the author props for having a good imagination and great ideas though. I just thought the execution needed more work.

A very interesting read. Cant say how much of it I enjoyed, but I do like the paths the author took with the story. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I absolutely loved the writing style. It was easy to read and enjoy. But this book was a lot. I do think there is specific market for this book and who will love it.