Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

53 reviews

kimskankwalker's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Animal death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism, Confinement, Excrement, Fatphobia, Police brutality, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

srags's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Vomit, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Blood, Excrement, Toxic friendship, and Violence

lollypopzoo's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This one was not my cup of tea. There are several horrific animal scenes. I think that Cutter books are more for the people who enjoy movies like the Saw franchise. I’m much more of a haunted house or monster kind of person. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Death, Body shaming, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Gore, Fatphobia, Self harm, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Child death, Body horror, Blood, and Alcohol

benjiaprout'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I didn't like worms before. I really don't like them now.

The prose is very readable, and the premise is interesting. But considering my copy had a Stephen King quote saying it scared the hell out of him, I'm confused. It was grim, sure, utterly disgusting - the worst body horror I'd read and I've had a mosey about. It made me feel sick, but not scared, there wasn't an awful lot of suspense as the basic plot gets spoiled relatively early on and anyone with decent grasp of story and character can guess where the plot and scouts will end up. Not bad, but I'm not as impressed as I hoped to be, seeing as I'd seen so many people recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Medical trauma, and Torture

dayofthetabi's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

This book isn’t scary. I love horror. This isn’t it. This is gross. The fat phobia is astounding. Had this been written in the 70s or 80s, okay terrible but ‘‘twas the times. 2014? And every single character has an issue with someone being overweight? Every single one? Go suck on an egg. 

The animal violence is also just for violence sake. Most was not needed. In fact half this book was just not needed. Cut the page count turn it into a novella for those who enjoy torture films and be done. Because this was awful, not because it was violent, but because it took great works with lessons and just ruined them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Bullying, and Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Excrement and Domestic abuse

allhailursula's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This was something.

I think this really does have a few downright skin crawling and unsettling scenes, and by the end, i felt a lot of pity for the characters put in front of us. 

I am on the fence when it comes to horror authors writing gross and gratuitous scenes,not for plot purposes but just because the writer can. 
There was the once scene specifically in Shelley's POV that was particularly grotesque, and when reading  felt almost as if the author was trying to beat it over the head and say, "Look at me! Aren't i a great author!" 

I had more than one moment when i thought the author himself was creepy. Im not sure if he meant to do that, but there were some weird choices, such as legnthy passages about the way these young boys smelled in  great detail borderlining fantasy or the very descriptive moments of a young teenage boys erection which was inappropriate  at best. Im of the opinion that fantasizing and writing in that great detail about children is almost never appropriate or needed to further the story. Especially when the second offense occurs more than once.

It wasn't bad i just really had some icks with this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Gore, and Self harm

sheabuttaah's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Uhhhhh this is the weirdest and grossest book I’ve ever read. It’s written well but if you’re squeamish, don’t read this lmao. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Medical content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Animal death, Gore, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty

paperbackparker's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

Absolutely disgusting.
I loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Excrement, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Torture, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Violence, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, Death, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

aemowers's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Vomit, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual content, Alcohol, Cancer, Self harm, Suicide, Child death, and Death

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

 Holy shit. Ever since I picked this book up I’ve been thinking about worms. I boarded a flight and as soon as my ears started to gum up my first thought was that it had to be worms. Worms that snuck in there and are curling up, just waiting to spread out and suck the nutrients from my body. Jesus just thinking about the plot of this book gives me goosebumps. Nick Cutter describes every in painstaking detail. This is both a pro and a con. On one hand, I'm completely immersed in the story and I appreciate his creative (and terrifying) analogies and on the other, I am increasingly disgusted with every flip of a page. Speaking of analogies his comparison of human bones jutting out under skin to a trombone in wrapping paper KILLED ME.

Cutter does such a great job characterizing the boys of Troop 52. They make mistakes, they're full of angst and curiosity. The relationships between the boys are complex and I absolutely loved the layers to this. In the first half of the book, I found all of them to be little shits. This continued until the end, but I also realized I was being unfair to these characters. And maybe it was the point to despise them all a little bit.

The structure of this story, traditional chapters intermingled with newspaper articles, interviews, research logs etc was unconventional and I enjoyed it so much. The story wouldn't be the same without it. I read the acknowledgments for once and turns out Cutter was inspired to do this by Stephen King's Carrie, so maybe that will be one of my next reads.

Songs:

• Sick of Being Young - Krooked Kings
• Christmas Kids - ROAR

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Abandonment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Medical content, Animal death, Body shaming, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Alcohol

Minor: Excrement and Fatphobia