Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Girls by Emma Cline

34 reviews

sammiesshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

2.0

This book fell incredibly flat for me. I was excited by the premise of a Manson-esque cult story, and the cover caught my eye, but I was greatly disappointed. One thing I believe contributed greatly to this was the perspective the story is told from. The narrator is Evie Boyd, a girl who spent the summer leading up to the murders with the cult. She was 14 at the time. However, when she is telling the story, she is somewhere in her mid to late fifties from what I gathered, so the tone you are left with is jaded and depressing. It seems as if her life sort of peaked that summer, so her whole vibe is just sad and lonely. This makes it so that you lose a lot of the illusion of the cult in the beginning. Immediately, Evie points out the faults at the ranch, even though she didn't pay much mind to them at the time. For me, this made it feel like I was just reading about a bunch of dirty (like literally don't bathe) scammers the whole time, instead of almost experiencing the way they use their charisma and "message" to pull people in. I think much of what I expect a cult book to be is sort of through the eyes of someone falling for the trap, not someone who escaped and is recounting it forty years later. 

Additionally, there was a weird story going on in the present tense, which felt completely unnecessary. I think the author was going for some sort of parallel with the story of the cult, but it didn't really work and just made the book harder to get through. 

Overall, the book dragged terribly and was very easy for me to put down. The only time I found myself reading more than thirty pages at a time was when I finally said "Oh my god I want to get this over with." An enticing concept, but sadly a poor execution.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

grboph's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This was the first book I finished in 2022, and it was a very good one!! I have been very fascinated with cults recently, and this was a good deviation from a lot of the nonfiction things I have been using to learn about them (the cult in this book is clearly based on the Manson Family). Emma Cline is a wonderful writer, and it is somewhat hard to believe that this was the first book she ever wrote. I found Evie to be a very interesting character, and I think she had a good arc. The thing I liked the most about this book was that Evie felt very relatable, which was nice for me since I hadn't really encountered many teenage-girl characters like that in adult novels before. Then that scared me a little because I realized that maybe I could have fallen into something like Evie did if I had found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time when I was that age. I don't know if this was something Cline did on purpose, but either way, it made the book all the more thought-provoking. Overall, The Girls was a unique and engaging book and I enjoyed every second I spent reading it. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in cults or the 1960s as a time period, or anyone looking to read a unique story of any kind.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Excrement

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, and Blood

This is a book about a violent, manipulative cult that culminates with a relatively graphic description of the murders of four people, one of whom is a young child. Also, the whole reason that the main character is drawn into the cult in the first place is because of someone she has an obsession with who is quite manipulative and cruel.

nsidhu's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse and Pedophilia

Minor: Gore and Blood

numipig30's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Gore and Murder

bookspace's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Vomit, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

samflowerv6's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

gritty and disturbing which is what the author was going for. accurate representation of attention seeking behaviors in young girls and how that can impact their relationships with men.

“That was part of being a girl--you were resigned to whatever feedback you'd get. If you got mad, you were crazy, and if you didn't react, you were a bitch. The only thing you could do was smile from the corner they'd backed you into. Implicate yourself in the joke even if the joke was always on you.” 

“That was our mistake, I think. One of many mistakes. To believe that boys were acting with a logic that we could someday understand. To believe that their actions had any meaning beyond thoughtless impulse. We were like conspiracy theorists, seeing portent and intention in every detail, wishing desperately that we mattered enough to be the object of planning and speculation. But they were just boys. Silly and young and straightforward; they weren't hiding anything.” 

“So much of desire, at that age, was a willful act. Trying so hard to slur the rough, disappointing edges of boys into the shape of someone we could love. We spoke of our desperate need for them with rote and familiar words, like we were reading lines from a play. Later I would see this: how impersonal and grasping our love was, pinging around the universe, hoping for a host to give form to our wishes.” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Children in bad living conditions was so bad

taylorttea's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, and Murder

lavieenrose's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

eve_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

3.0

Overall Thoughts:
 ⁕ This book is obviously not a feel-good read, but I feel that I have to emphasize just how graphic and intense some of the scenes are. It’s beyond icky at points and may not be the right fit for all readers.

⁕ A lot of the news, stories, and retellings of the Manson family focus on Manson himself. It was interesting to see the events from the perspective of one of the girls involved (even if this was a super fictionalized account).

⁕ I enjoyed the exploration of morality and evil through Evie’s character. One of the main questions the book asks of the reader is “can anyone be capable of evil?” — something I feel we don’t often get to discuss with female characters.

To read my full review, visit: https://evereads.online
For regular book-related content, follow my Instagram account: @eve_reads  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

ellaaj's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.0

This book is poetically written and often describes very ugly things in a beautiful way but at times, this feels too much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Abortion, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis