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Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo

79 reviews

vampandcoffee's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Setting and plot were super cool and the reason why I purchased this book in the first place.
BUT: there are no goddamn trigger warnings anywhere, at least not in my copy. And they are desperately needed! 

Also, tell me why the 30yo protagonist started a sexual (on page!) relationship with a freshly 18yo? WHY? What was the reason to not age up the love interest? (Can‘t be for shock effect cause the relationship is never questioned at all!!!) OH, and also: why did they then proceed to monsterfuck for a second time? For the love of God, add trigger warnings for that next time…
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paige_hollingsworth99's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

Fantastic. Delightful. Not as scary as expect but! We love queer revenge. This was very heavy for me, but I thought the ending delivered.
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thehal's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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charlesbiglythethird's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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saturdayslaughter's review

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dark tense medium-paced

3.75

It was so cool to see all this old timey gay stuff! I had a good time following this war veteran invert through rural town hell. I didn’t really go in expecting erotica, I wish I had, I could have enjoyed anticipating it, but anyway that part was good. The story really ramped up for me, and that climax (ha)! Blood and guts and monster sex! 

I do think the build up could have been more effective, the tension with the townsfolk was oppressive but kind of repetitive. 

(was kind of wild for the epilogue to put them back in an context I recognized where they weren’t being immediately threatened, it made the age dynamic suddenly way more apparent. not a bad thing for the story, but the more you have to think about it the more uncomfortable it is.)

I did find the inclusion of the super natural elements lackluster. I think what I was feeling is that it wasn’t treated like a mystery. I theoretically liked the characters choices around Leslie’s reaction to it and the monster, but I didn’t like how Little reaction to it there was. Like he finds a horrifying gory scene in the woods and after running for his life in the moment he kinda just does not think about it again. There’s like one mention of it afterwards. I would have been fine with that if it had been a bit more explicit that he was avoiding it because of the shellshock or the more immediate threats, but it just felt unaddressed. Overall I felt like something was up with the presentation of the supernatural horror bits. There just wasn’t much there besides dark descriptions of a forest. (also something compromised for me in how connected Stevie supposedly is to the forest, vs his ending leaving. it felt like there could have been more there)

While it didn’t have me wowed the whole way through, I am really happy this book exists. What a cool thing, an explicit and gory queer trans historical piece with reference material listed at the end. What a comfort 
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naomidanae's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense 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? Yes

3.75

 The writing in this book is immediately engaging. Mandelo knows how to paint a picture. I felt unsettled from the start, too. Spar Creek, as is true of many settings in stories that I love, is a character of its own. The human characters in this story are cast in the strange light of the town itself, and there's a seething queer rage at the heart of this story.

I wasn't expecting sexual explicitness in this novella, and I do think those scenes have a place, but the juxtaposition of that with everything else that happens in the book is a bit off-putting. Being a survivor of sexual assault is not incongruous with still having desire by any means, but these scenes happened so quickly and suddenly that I wondered if they could have been handled a little more carefully or with a bit more nuance instead.

Some quotes:
"The forest whispered around him with a thousand holy mouths. As Woolf had written, Everything, in fact, was something else."
"He'd been a raw-blooded young thing once, and he understood the sweetness—the genuine security—of revenge. He even understood the desire to keep one's hometown, but the thing was, he also understood how dangerous Stevie's path of resistance would be. Sometimes survival meant ripping loose those domestic roots." 
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herelieshenry's review

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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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I think Mandelo’s writing is superb and some people will eat this book up—the romance subplot just wasn’t for me and I didn’t expect it going in, so I think I was expecting something slightly different. The atmosphere of dread was very well done though, and the historical Appalachian cadence of the dialogue was stellar. I think I’ll enjoy Mandelo’s other works more.
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meagan123's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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kat42's review against another edition

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

2.0

Did not know this was a monsterfucking book. Not exactly my thing (no shade to people who enjoy it, it's just not for me). Almost nothing happened during the first half, and idk if it should be classified as horror even though there's definitely some gore and cruelty. Also Leslie didn't really advance the story at all, and I didn't love that Leslie was 30 and the love interest was 18.
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justacowboy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

4.5

What a good time ... The book starts off slow, but I think the pay off of it all it worth it. If you can get through the first 50 some pages, then the rest of the story flies by! Also, it has trans-queer monster fucking so what's not to love?
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