Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories by Lindsay Wong

3 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Gore, Murder, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Incest, Death, Body horror, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Animal death, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Confinement, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, War, and Racism

Minor: Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Deadnaming, Suicide, Vomit, Cancer, Sexual content, Excrement, and Transphobia

Natural disaster, apocalypse ("Sinking Houses").

mcooper's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

It's booked as a darkly funny horror, but I didn't find it very funny, and the stories were often more cruel or gross than they are scary

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

jeezjane's review

dark lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

this book was not for me. i found the stories gratuitously violent and/or gross, which is not bad per se, but they were also sloppily written and made me question how much effort the author put into this collection. i felt there was no point to any of the stories, and i don't mean a crux or climax, i mean like things happened (usually gross), people suffered, and that's it. no payoff, emotional or otherwise. it just presented vignettes of nasty situations, and i suppose the allure is that these nasty situations are described in a cavalier and almost flippant tone, to shock you into amusement AND also make it more palatable to read, but it just didn't work out for me. the flippancy to me read like lack of care, which also made me not care. i didn't like any of the characters, nor did i hate any of the characters in a fun way. i did not feel like i got a good portrayal of chinese culture in the stories that touched upon that subject - actually, due to the nonchalant tone of the writing and the grotesque, over the top scenarios, the cultural information presented made me feel like it was just a person picking a Something Cool About Chinese culture and then writing a whole pointless story based on a caricature of it. the worlds were not thought out or fleshed out, and also not "suspend your disbelief" in a fun way. it was just surreal and... hurts me to say this, but surreal and kinda stupid? also baffling was that sometimes she used diacritics and sometimes not. if there was a method to this (like maybe some terms are well known enough that they don't warrant them?) i did not understand it. i don't care either way but  consistency would be nice. 

short stories are really hard and i get that but these were really disappointing. some were a better read than others but none were really good reads. 

killer title. i gave points for creativity and smtms a line or two would be well-written enough for me to appreciate it? idk 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Physical abuse, Body horror, Torture, Body shaming, Blood, Gore, Death, Violence, Murder, and Cannibalism

some things are explicit but nothing is dwelled upon for long lengths of time.