Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo

92 reviews

mjadeh'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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Pregnancy

sheriffrockyraccoon's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

I should note the reason for as low of a score as I gave may be influenced by the several queer literature courses I took over my college career. In this case, the novel felt more like referencing other, fuller novels rather than becoming a fully-fleshed story itself. It does receive a full star for truly committed to monster porn, though.

My main issues come from the main character. Leslie is an outsider looking in, and that meant a lot of character development surrounding love interests, “friends”, and antagonists was not present. I also have a strong distaste for stories that have a bias against rural towns, claiming cities are better. In the case of Leslie, Stevie does call this out at one point but it is hardly acknowledged and does not seem to change his opinion. Of course, yes, this town is evil and the population is truly horrible, but it felt as though I were being told through past stories and dialogue why they were so villainous. I would have liked to see more action between the protagonist and antagonist(s), as much of their scuffles really only came from passive-aggressive comments.

I was also frustrated with the pacing, as we don’t even see the monster until halfway through the story. Most of the book consists of Leslie becoming frustrated with the townspeople and, it is noted several times, being unable to read Woolf’s Orlando. It did drive me crazy how many times this was noted. The last fourth of the story is great, there are very exciting and tense scenes (and monster porn) that truly categorize it as a horror. It is disappointing that we did not get more of it.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes queer horror, with an emphasis on queer living. Mandelo’s writing is decent and can be very engaging when something is happening to move the plot forward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism and Rape

errie's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Abortion, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Dysphoria

rmarkham's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

basementofbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

slimshaedy92's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

I wish there was more story to this- it feels way too fast and while it does technically tell a complete story I had not arrived at the same page as the characters by the time we got to the

fisting scene

. Also did not expect

giant monster river sex

but that’s on me. Also confirming the huuuge age gap in the romance (I knew Leslie was a bit older having been to war and back but not exactly how much older) really made me check out of the romance completely. I’ve never seen call me by your name, and I’ve never fully understood the appeal of the huge age gap queer relationship even as Luca Gugenheimer makes what I believe to be a SECOND movie about exactly that (Queer)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Rape and Transphobia

jourdanicus's review

dark hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Whoa 😳 this book was not what I expected. I thought: queer horror. I was not prepared for:

queer revenge horror and oh, monster sex 😀

. Anyway it was really good and I strongly recommend to any fans of queer/historical horror or queer speculative fiction.

As far as horror goes, this one was not terrifying per se. It had the strong sense of place that I find most books set in Appalachia tend to have, and Appalachia can be a spooky place at times. This was more tense than scary, and definitely check the trigger warnings because transphobia is a central part of the plot (but

don't worry bc the ending is satisfying

)!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Blood, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault

rhi_'s review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Deadnaming, Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

cowbrotherx's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

i wish it had been longer! i wish we got more of a development of

leslie and stevie's relationship

i think there was room to build up more tension between characters.
also, fully did not anticipate

monsterfucking

, but enjoyed the book none the less

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

vii's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

I was recommended this book by my friend who thought it was quite interesting because the MC is solidly secure in his identity as a trans man while the rest of the people in the setting/town just see him as a strange and improper woman. Well, that just sounds like Being Closeted While Trans (the horror!), but I finally read it.

I quite liked the evocative prose and all the historical details, but the plot was a bit slow to unfold (unless you count the inherent horror of dealing with the townsfolk...). I also wasn't expecting it to turn into a rather explicit romance (?) by the end.

Speaking of which, I wasn't really convinced of Leslie and Stephan's relationship considering the age gap and their chemistry... it felt a bit forced.

In any case, I am a fan of indulgent stories where

the monster/monstrous gets revenge on humans doing horrible things, but I kind of wish there was more going on before the ending; Leslie was mostly getting stonewalled by literally everyone in the town for a significant chunk of the book. I bounced off of the beginning a few times and only finished because I was surprised to see this was actually a novella, it felt that long.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Sexual assault, Abortion, and Pregnancy