Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Cows by Matthew Stokoe

21 reviews

abbiey34's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No

0.25

This is possibly one of the worst books I’ve ever read. The author should be ashamed of himself. The writing is poor. Very focussed on down talking women, obsessed over the word c*nt for vagina, degrading women. Understand that the women in the book are not pleasant, but you do wonder what the hell this author thinks about women. Couldn’t fully finish the book it and made me feel disturbed and unsettled. Disappointing. I wanted a challenging book to rood as Tender is the Flesh really wasn’t all that good either. But this takes it too far. I have a strong stomach, massive fan of horror films, but this is too far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Any trigger warning you can think of, this book has it.

bombadalejr's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Honestly, despite the gore and general horror found in this book, it’s a really interesting plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

rosales2486's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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

1.0

Pretty boring aside from the atrocious and disgusting scenarios.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

midnightime23's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

psychogen's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

2.25

Obvious reflection of society and the place of an individual in said society. Focus on darkness and emptiness of the world and people within.

For my taste too much focus in disgusting details for the sake of being shocking. There is no natural development into crazy things, all is described as horrible as possible. 

In comparing for example “American Psycho” managed to show insanity inside the normal world, which “cows” misses to deliver on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

jocelyn73c's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I'm not a big splatterpunk reader. Extreme gore is not really my thing. This book really pushed a lot of my boundaries, but that being said I thought the writing was good and there was an actual message about male isolation and dominance over others that I thought was well illustrated. I won't ever read it again, but I'm not mad I read it this one time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

This is a splatterpunk book and probably should not be read by someone who isn't familiar with the genre. It's very graphic and challenging.

spphynx's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely the worst and best book I’ve read so far this year. Very challenging. I mean, really wow, what the fuck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Rape, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, and Abortion

crypticapricorn's review against another edition

challenging 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

2.75

holy shit

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, and Murder

specificwonderland's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

In a sense, I dnf this book. I put it down at 50-55% and did not continue on. In another sense, I did finish it. I reached the end point for me. I've spent years reading fucked up things, watching fucked up things, listening to fucked up things. I wanted to prove to myself I could. I wasn't soft or affected. I was hard and wizened. Fuck all that. 

I read some reviews of this book before I quit, wondering if it would turn out to be fruitful or have some kind of 'good' ending. What I read was not encouraging. To paraphrase, "this is a less good Animal Farm". Yeah, I don't need to debase myself like this. It's ok that I'm soft. It's ok that I get disgusted and traumatized reading about a guy fucking a girl while he guides a colonoscopy camera up (really really up) her anal canal far into her intestines while they both listlessly watch the camera footage. It's ok that I don't want to read about 6 guys punching holes in the same cow while it's alive, so they can fuck the cow holes and then murder the cow so it tenses around their dicks before they finally stop its suffering. It's ok I don't want to hear about a sadistic mother feeding her adult son rotten sheep intestines, then him making her eat his literal shit, on a plate, over and over again. And the poor helpless dog. 

Wherever this book is going, it's ok that I don't want to go. 

From what I did read, I felt it was one dimensional, the detached third person narration of an emotionally delayed (however rightfully so) young man. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. I paid for it , and don't even want to leave it in a FLL without a content warning on it. I feel like Tender is the Flesh tackles these ideas in less harsh ways while still being visceral. 

Some questions I have at this juncture. The biggest question I have is, was the writer in on this? Did the writer do an amazing job at a character study of a depraved man or is the only way a writer could harness this much depravity is if he himself were that depraved man, saying whatever thoughts he thinks. If it's the former, there's some value in this level of repulsion. If it's the latter, I hope to never cross his path in a dark alley.

I do think the animal cruelty question opens an ethical line of questioning. Ok we can all agree THIS is too much, this is beyond the boundaries of what a cow should have to go through. How do we feel (singularly, as a society, or from the author's Australia versus my America) about factory farms? Most of us eat meat, isn't that cruel? Most of us distance ourselves as much as we can from our living breathing food. This book makes the reader look. 

Humans are disgusting, even if we're not unfeeling toxic monsters. We do horrible things to animals. And guess what, we do them to each other. Men rape women. People bring guns to schools, malls, concerts, movies. America is a hella racist place to be for a person of color. England colonized a lot of the world. We treat each other horribly. Is this book beyond that? (Resounding yes for me.) 

And my final question is, if it's not for me, who is this book for? I think it's for someone who wants to be pushed to their limits. I love a sad book that destroys me. If there's an audience who craves that feeling of being destroyed and levelled by a disgusting work, this is the book for that audience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

pantrat's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Rape