Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

74 reviews

colormeember's review

dark slow-paced

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

2.5

I was so excited to read this book but in the end I had to force myself to not DNF it. It’s a really interesting premise and some parts really drew you in. But the story was slow and the words used were the biggest synonyms to simple words. In the end I enjoyed the relationship with Emma but I would have enjoyed more of it. It read like a student who had a 10 page paper due and only wrote 6 and it’s due tomorrow. Things were so drawn out I basically skimmed my way to the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Rape, Car accident, Cancer, Gore, and Cannibalism

chay_sand's review

dark 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Cannibalism, Murder, and Car accident

bbpettry's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.25

Summers really worked me out with this debut - I'm three years late as always, but damn! It's fun, its grotesque, its twisty and while this protagonist is deeply fascinating, there is no point in the narrative that is positioning for forgiveness. Dorothy Daniels is a violent murderer, and she tells us about that in tales of food and sex and plotting. It feels like Summers made this character by taking all the femme fatale career bitch attitude stuff from the 90's and took it all to its logical conclusion. A man-eater. A writer. A woman. Every time the writing was on the verge of losing me in too much gourmet musing (she is a food critic writing from prison, obviously she'd go on endless food tangents)  she pulls it back with a raunchy one-liner or low brow tv reference (Green Acres being my fave.) Somehow with all this book is, one could describe it as a book about the power of friendship and you'd technically be right. Very misleading, but correct.  
Not 5 because

while the end with Emma knowing all and staying loyal was fun, something about the end felt wanting? I wanted a bloodier end somehow, with her having escaped and maybe she's coming to eat you next kinda thing. But this isn't a horror novel, so maybe the end fits but was clumsy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Car accident, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Stalking, and Cancer

peggy_racham's review against another edition

5.0

"To eat people is to get the taste of a Titan. It’s infinite immortalization. It makes a god out of a woman."

Women's rights but more importantly women's wrongs. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Gore, Rape, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

officialdani's review

dark reflective slow-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

3.25

The writing is overly pretentious, although I realize the character is pretentious. It gets a bit tiring at times, but really keeps you connected to the main character.

However, the more I read the more it kept me interested.

The descriptions of certain events are very graphic and disturbing. But that did make it a good October/Halloween read.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this, but I also wouldn’t discourage someone from reading it (unless you really can’t read graphic content). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Stalking, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Animal death

racl's review

dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The best way I've found to describe the bulk of the book is that it reads like NBC Hannibal feels to watch. It's downright decadent in it's description and focuses just as much on food as it does on murder. The main character manages to be likeable despite what she describes to the reader and the author really made her feel like a food columnist 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, Animal death, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Confinement, and Death of parent

fadeddpages's review

challenging dark reflective

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Gore, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Violence, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

abicaro17's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

The last 25% of the book was very gripping and intriguing. Unfortunately most of the book had me checking my progress and seeing if it was over yet. Im usually a sucker for a gruesome murder which this book technically delivers but, the descriptions of literally anything and everything take up most of the book. Its almost repetitive and it took a lot of self control not to skim the book. Plus the amount of times Dorothy was just like "oh yeah this happened anyways back to this food" was annoying as fuck. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Antisemitism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Cannibalism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Stalking, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism

ciaranolio's review

adventurous challenging funny fast-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

4.25

A comic horror novel written as a cannibal food critic's memoir, reminiscent in ways of American Psycho, darkly funny in places and deeply off-putting in others. Very vivid writing style and truly excellent food descriptions were a delight to me, but my reading experience was somewhat marred by the book's reputation as a feminist girlboss-type story, especially when considering the fact that the protagonist (who, don't get me wrong, is as entertaining as they come, but most certainly not a girlboss in my mind) actively commits a hate crime.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Antisemitism, Blood, Car accident, Cannibalism, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Sexual content, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent, Chronic illness, Classism, Body shaming, Alcohol, and Cancer

spherocytosis's review

dark funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, and Cancer

Minor: Toxic friendship