Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt

12 reviews

calcified_boner's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Deliciously gross, practically parasitic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Incest, Violence, Torture, Hate crime, and Transphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Alcohol, Child death, Fatphobia, Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Ableism, Classism, and Abandonment

saccharinewoe's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

this was like if someone took that one blowfly girl story and used it as an allegory for the parasitic nature of transphobia and bigotry. interesting piece of transgressive fiction that made me feel genuinely sick and disturbed - i did have to take a break when the author suggested for it in the middle of the book lol. i literally have no idea what the ending is supposed to mean though, i feel like i hallucinated it. but like the writing was phenomenal and easy to follow until the last bit. i genuinely would not be able to recommend this to anyone unless i knew they were able to handle it in all its grossness and horrific imagery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Incest, Violence, Body horror, Hate crime, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug use, Murder, Ableism, Dysphoria, and Sexual assault

djbobthegirl's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Incest, Misogyny, Deadnaming, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Child death, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Blood, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Mental illness, Violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Self harm, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Trafficking, Alcohol, Abortion, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Stalking

trashgobby's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Deadnaming, Body horror, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, Violence, Sexism, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gore

Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Death of parent, Excrement, Alcohol, Incest, Violence, Child abuse, Infertility, Abandonment, Eating disorder, and Classism

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Body horror, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Suicide, Violence, Rape, Blood, Drug use, Mental illness, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, Deadnaming, Murder, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Excrement, Incest, Transphobia, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Ableism, Genocide, Chronic illness, Death of parent, War, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Police brutality, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Trafficking, and Antisemitism

seawarrior's review against another edition

4.0

Brainwyrms is as dark, disgusting, and wormy as promised. Rumfitt excels at ironic wit and at writing thorny characters who encounter brutal pulses of horror within their otherwise mundane lives.

The leads in Brainwyrms treat themselves and others with an aggressive disregard that unfurls into gruesome violence of cosmic proportions. I recognized their ideas and actions in some of the worst and most unwell people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. Rumfitt is obviously someone who has grown up on the Internet, and was able to depict its underbellies and relentless noise of voices with deftness. However, I did not understand how some of the plots and themes of the book related to one another. This may be because I read the book so quickly, or it may be because I had no familiarity with Edgar Allen Poe's "The Conqueror Worm", which should be a prerequisite for this novel. I would recommend this book to other readers willing to sit with their disgust and read a story that makes no attempt to alleviate their fear of the future. The future for transgender people may be a horrifying one, and Rumfitt knows it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Murder, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Mental illness, Incest, Body horror, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Excrement, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Self harm

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Rape, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Confinement, Misogyny, Animal death, and Lesbophobia

vixenreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Unapologetically disgusting and unflinching in its commentary against the spread of transphobia, this novel is a riveting example of how pain and fear can disrupt the minds and growth of those unfortunate to be infected

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Grief, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Death, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Excrement, Gore, Murder, Rape, Deadnaming, Infertility, Medical content, Violence, Body shaming, Transphobia, Blood, Cursing, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Vomit

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Outing, Suicide, Child death, Classism, Incest, Addiction, Confinement, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

Minor: Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Racism, Animal death, Stalking, and Antisemitism

Be aware that this is frank depictions of parasitic infestations with human bodies, urine, water sports, scat-play, anal sex, cyberbullying, online harassment, bombing, terrorism, eating and inserting excrement, fisting, running away from home, homicide, and extreme TERF behaviour.

gia0203's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Rumfitt’s narrative voice is very clear and direct in this book - the purpose of the novel felt very clear compared to her last one. I very much enjoyed it, in a different way from Tell Me I’m Worthless.

The same themes pervade both books: being transgender in Britain, and how it links sexuality and trauma. Rumfitt writes about how it feels like we’re going backwards. She touches again and again on how extremist ideas spread. Interestingly in this novel, the internet is also a major theme, for example the fetish community. She pulls at the tension between fetish communities as a bit of fun, a sanctuary and as a coping mechanism.

This book is at times very satirical. I really enjoyed that. It isn’t scared to expose the underbelly of hypocrisy in modern politics. There’s a passage in this book that says everything is about sex, and people just like to pretend that it isn’t. This book is daring when Britain at the moment is leaning towards conservatism and tradition.

In this book, the worms are the metaphor for extremism, similar to the haunted house in Tell Me I’m Worthless. But Rumfitt’s books can’t really be defined as just one thing. She juggles many metaphorical plates at once.  I criticised Tell Me I’m Worthless for it’s lack of clarity, and I don’t hold the same criticism for this book. In many ways it’s a stronger novel. Rumfitt is growing really well as an author.

Subjectively however, I think the difference between them is that Tell Me I’m Worthless was more emotional, more zoomed in on the two people at the heart of it, whereas Brainwyrms takes a broader perspective. I prefer Tell Me  I’m Worthless on a personal level, but Brainwyrms is the better book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Body horror, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Self harm, Excrement, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Outing, Fatphobia, Animal death, Addiction, Body shaming, Dysphoria, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Homophobia, and Murder

Minor: Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Abortion, Pregnancy, Ableism, Antisemitism, Infertility, and Rape

Terrorism/Bombing

lifeinpoetry's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Child abuse, Transphobia, Body horror, Sexual violence, Self harm, Rape, Gore, Violence, Eating disorder, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Fatphobia, Pedophilia, and Incest

Minor: Ableism and Deadnaming

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

First and foremost: this book is NOT for everyone (it’s probably not even for most, tbh).

It’s RIFE with graphic depictions of shockingly taboo sex (way worse than whatever you’re imagining right now). If that means I’ve already lost you? Totally understandable. Do not read this, lol.

BUT, I think pushing through the grossness of the book opens the door for some really important discussions about its themes. I mean, aside from being an extreme horror novel, it IS a timely political satire about transphobia in Britain. 

The main motif that I noticed again and again was the idea of bodies as “hosts” for something. One character has an impregnation kink and obsesses over the idea of hosting a fetus, another character is aroused by the idea of hosting a parasitic organism, and the villains of the story are people infected with extraterrestrial brain worms that are meant to symbolize (and also manifest in the story as) transphobia. 

The concepts of womanhood, motherhood and internet culture are also explored; and, to my great amusement, one of the villainous (and worm-riddled) characters is a not-so-subtle allusion to JK Rowling.

My only complaints are that a few chapters went a bit off the rails and became too abstract for my taste—some are written as this second person POV stream-of-consciousness that lacks about 70% of the necessary punctuation—and the r slur gets used in a way that I found gratuitous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Excrement, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Sexual content, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Incest

Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, Ableism, and Deadnaming