Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt

85 reviews

ahliahreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Not for the faint of heart or easily squeamish. However if you're tough enough to handle the parasitic, subversive nature, this might be one of the most important stories of the year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Incest, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Excrement

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

dylan_darko's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

lovelylilelle's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

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

Moderate: Fatphobia, Incest, and Pedophilia

Minor: Ableism and Deadnaming

owlribbon's review against another edition

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

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

Moderate: Incest

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

abithoughtful's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

True splatterpunk, this is not for everyone but YES she's done it again. Tell Me I'm Worthless was one of my favourite books of 2022 and Rumfitt carries that same brand of angry, brashly political horror-satire into her second novel. Takes literally the tongue-in-cheek assertion that transphobes are infected by brainworms, but plays that out against a strange, seemingly doomed relationship between a trans woman and her latest partner (and their respective impregnation and parasite kinks). A slow burner, gradually spirals down into its own depths, managing to implicate the media elite and the upper middle classes and good old fashioned misogyny into a weird explosive climax.

Rumfitt does a lot of cool things narratively with this, inserting herself as a semi-fictional authorial voice from ten years in the future, writing some parts in the second person, and occasionally addressing the reader directly. It's extreme but also full of care, beginning with trigger warnings and including a striking moment halfway through where the reader is encouraged to step away to prepare for what's coming next. It's ambitious in its scope and aims and impressive in how it handles them, but I think a little slow in the execution and may e could have benefitted from one additional ruthless edit.

Still, brilliant horror from one of the most original voices of this generation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Excrement

ellisdex's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

jesus christ. i have brainwyrms brainworms

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infertility, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

beaverla's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, Pregnancy, and Dysphoria

kentanapages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Actual review to come. Immediate reaction What the f did I just read, I am disturbed. This is some f#@ked up sh!t. Every trigger warning.  it’s horrifying it’s just so disturbing i read it in one sitting 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Death of parent

Moderate: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Suicide, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Dysphoria

Weird, There’s not a content warning specific to “graphically depicted parasite fetish” :)