Reviews tagging 'Torture'

You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson

21 reviews

riledupryepie's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Miriam is a traditional Within the Wires narrator - unreliable and slightly deranged, ethically questionable, and a huge lesbian.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Torture, Dementia, Child death, and War

Minor: Death of parent and Death

hippievamp's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective relaxing sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, War, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Torture

Moderate: Death, Child death, Mental illness, Death of parent, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Infertility, Grief, Gun violence, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

quartzier's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

This book will make you think. If you're interested in sociology, psychology, apocalypse, utopian and dystopian themes, it will definitely enhance your experience of the book. I would beat describe the genre as cerebral horror. The tone is increasingly ominous as you read, and the ending is very much *not* cut and dry, with everything all wrapped up neatly for us, bow and all. I absolutely loved that for this book, and it made me obsessed with the lore and determined to listen to the podcast (Within The Wires) that also takes place in this world- I'm hoping for more lore, because I'm a little bit addicted to the concept and enthralled with the execution. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Torture, and Confinement

Minor: Gore

The themes of this book are inherently datk but are told in retrospect by the narrator and are presented very matter-of-factly for most of the book (as opposed to being written as colorfully and explicitly as possible in order to elicit intense emotional responses from the reader) and in a fairly mild (if sometimes ominous or unsettling) tone. I flagged a lot of content warnings for this book, but many of them are only mildly included, mentioned, and/or moved past and not dwelt upon.

hahanimation's review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

One to reread and reconsider everything again and again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Torture, Body horror, Gaslighting, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Pregnancy, Violence, War, and Toxic friendship

ru_th's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Everything is irrelevant. 
Everything is important. 
Everything is important, until it is irrelevant. 
Breathe in. Breathe out. Until you cannot. 
Memory is malleable. History is mutable. All I can do is try to make sure my story isn’t lost. I have saved what I can, so you will understand what we have become. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Body horror, War, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, Violence, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, Homophobia, Murder, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

standardgoose's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Death, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Torture, and Child death

Minor: Gore

catalyst226's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Incredibly compelling and unsettling and definitely one of my favorite reads this year. The story has both an unreliable narrator and biased framing that makes you question what is true.  Pulls in vibes of Parable of the Sower, The Giver, and just a little bit of The Handmaid's Tale (sans religious overtones). I'm very happy with the audiobook delivery and will likely purchase a physical copy because I enjoyed it so much. Highly recommend if you enjoy dystopian fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death and Pregnancy

Minor: Gun violence

aileron's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Child death, and Torture

Moderate: Pregnancy, War, and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence and Animal cruelty

quinnjuliac's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Confinement, Abandonment, and Child abuse

Psychological torture

abookwithreview's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Actual rating for this book is 4.5 stars. 

I listened to the audiobook of this, and honestly I wish I could hear it for the first time again. I found it by using shuffle mode on Libby and had absolutely NO idea what it was about upon starting. I'm so glad I did though.

Unlike most dystopian novels, this one is not during the unquestioning after a society has been set up but instead in the before and during (mostly). We are allowed a front row seat to how this alternate timeline ended up where they did, with glimpses of how people are propagandized throughout. 

A mid paced story with a haunting LGBTQ+ romance, this book was close to perfect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, and War

Pandemic mentioned, psychological reprogramming, and psychological torture mentioned