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chloseencounter's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Murder
loongbooy's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Blood, Cursing, Vomit, Violence, Body horror, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Murder
stefanie_duncan's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Blood and Violence
cutelilcryptid's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
...and that's where the excitement stopped. I'm not going to whine about content. Shoving toothpicks in people's ears? Daydreaming about how you'd kill your boyfriend? Masturbating on cancer patients? Cyborg cunnilingus? Fine, whatever. I signed up for weird shit when I chose to read a book in this genre. The actual reasons for my discontent are outlined below.
1. Have I mentioned that I love the concept of this book? The concept is that this collection of dialogue, poetry, and novella chapters were written by a serial killer, Martyr Black, and has been published in order to "shed light" on his crimes, victims, and possibly give hints to where he's disappeared to. I was 100% ready to take a highlighter to this book and make a whole ass conspiracy theory pinboard trying to connect the dots and piece together everything he did, where he disappeared to, and why he left. There's this tendency with writing, especially with poetry, to try to conflate the narrative voice with the voice of the writer themselves and view all poetry as autobiographical (*cough*Sylvia Plath*cough*), and I thought this book was going to provide some really interesting commentary on that idea. Which leads to my next point:
2. The ending "plot twist" totally fumbled the entire concept for the book (I use "plot twist" in the loosest sense, this book has no real plot beyond what I already stated). At the end of the book you find out that
Remember how I said I was ready to take a highlighter to this and go crazy connecting dots trying to figure out who Martyr is and why he did what he did? The ending renders that effectively impossible, because it's not actually written by Martyr. As a reader, I felt this was a cheap and lazy ploy. It would be much more difficult, after all, to craft a self-contained anthology that, bit by bit, reveals more and more about the writer and how his dark obsessions lead to hideous acts. Instead we get "hee hoo the whole thing was stolen anyway". It's the equivalent of getting to the end of the book and the main character wakes up in bed and says "Wow, what a strange dream". I was pissed.
ONE MAJOR PROBLEM with this ending: if this is an anthology of "stolen" poetry, there are still way too many thematic and stylistic connections between different works. One of the poems mentions "Holy Eucharist" and there's a later poems is titled "Eucharist". The same poem is also titled "I Search for You Until My Lungs Sprout Metal" and the ENTIRE NOVELLA is about people being infested by machines. These are just a few examples I can think of off hand and I'm sure there's plenty more. There also just seems to be little effort put into differentiating the works from one another stylistically (you know, the way they would be if all written by different people). Like, the book isn't even properly selling the "this was all plagiarism" concept that well. It's infuriating.
3. Purely as prose, the writing itself is quite good. Larocca's use of language is exquisite and masterful--to say anything less because I didn't like the end of the book would be discrediting him. The poetry is think is a little less inspired--it just seems like regular prose from anywhere else in the book with some line breaks tossed in. Good poetry is not just prose with line breaks, and I will die on that hill.
Graphic: Cursing, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Violence
I tried adding as many trigger warnings as I could remember, but honestly probably missed some. (Also idk how to tag some, like the whole "consenting to sexual activity until finding out she's a cyborg" deal.) It's basically purposely written to be disturbing and fulfills no other purpose.mmccombs's review against another edition
2.5
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Gore
ariet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Narrative-wise, we shift between transcripts, diary entries, and poetry, interspersed with a novella written by one of the main "real world" characters. While I enjoyed the novella, I really feel like the breaking up didn't work out as well as it possibly could have. I can see how in some circumstances you could see the reflection of worldview or narrative events, but it just fell kind of flat.
It was by no means terrible, and there were some great moments of body horror and narrative turns, but on the whole, it was just an alright experience. Worth reading if you come across it, but not going to haunt you for ages.
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Animal cruelty
sunsetcity's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Toxic relationship, Torture, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Gore, Medical content, Kidnapping, Confinement, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent
mcpl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Physical abuse, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Violence, Blood, and Torture
Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent
jackalopecore's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Moderate: Abandonment, Pedophilia, and Vomit
madisonreads_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Sexual violence