Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

11 reviews

snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, War, Cancer, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Excrement, Pedophilia, and Racial slurs

octopusarms's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Body horror, Grief, Violence, Cursing, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Murder, Death of parent, and Infidelity

mxpringle's review against another edition

dark 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

2.75

One day maybe I will find a horror novel that doesn't include queer people and women without demonizing and/or victimizing them. I thought it was solidly enjoyable in terms of the writing, but I feel like a lot of the plot and topics explored are tropes that have been overdone, such as Southern small town murders, hitchhikers, etc., though these were intermingled with a few really cool new ideas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, Murder, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Torture, Sexual harassment, Rape, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gaslighting, Grief, Gore, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Alcohol, Body horror, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Moderate: Pregnancy and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit

damolaarin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Incest, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

bytheriver's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

qi_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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

4.5

wowowow. this was fucking good. 

i appreciate how well plotted the story line seemed to be. everything made sense together and donald ray pollock didn't feel the need to throw out a random, nonsensical twist in the name of shock value. although the means that i had a pretty strong hunch about where the story would be going it still was able to shock me due to the writing and how he depicts such scenes. 

the writing was gritty and blunt which i love. some of these scenes are written in such a matter-of-fact way which just leaves you feeling like you like D: 

the characters were well written and felt very dynamic. even "bad" characters *cough cough arvin* i still felt like rooting for and you are just left with mixed emotions. 

part five was definitely the part where i had the biggest emotional reactions to the text, i am reluctant to say my favourite part because yikes. if you are looking for some small town, gritty horror i would highly recommend but dO LOOK UP TRIGGER WARNINGS! 

as you can tell by this spotty review i don't know how to formulate my thoughts properly. so, great way to nurse the morning after my second dose of the vaccine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

atalea's review against another edition

dark sad 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? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Cursing, and Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Bullying

zacharie's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This book is hyper-violent with characters so messed up it feels wrong to say that I liked reading it. It very much triggered that part of your brain that can’t look away from a tragedy, because no matter how uncomfortable the book made me, I kept coming back to it and wanting to know what fucked up thing would happen next. 

As a person who is usually drawn to loveable and relatable characters, it was interesting to find myself invested in a cast of characters I absolutely despise. Normally a story with unlikeable characters like this would make me want to stop reading and pick up something else, but for this book it was the complete opposite. This amplified the experience in a way, because after having followed this group of repulsive characters, the ending felt rewarding in a way I haven’t really experienced before in a mix of relief and satisfaction. 

I don’t think I’ll ever be able recommend this book to anyone with the heaping amount of content warnings, but I’m glad I got myself through this unsettling experience. I’ll probably be coming back to it during future spooky seasons too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Homophobia

petit_lecteur's review

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, and Toxic relationship

kylajaynebooks's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

1.5

I only finished it so I can justify watching the movie but oh my god I didn’t like it 😂

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit