Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

207 reviews

jennaraetions's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

5 stars simply because what the fuck

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Vomit, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Blood, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Fatphobia, Animal death, Bullying, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Grief

charlieeee's review against another edition

dark sad 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Self harm, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Bullying, Vomit, and Blood

Minor: Police brutality, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Medical content, and Forced institutionalization

nerdywerewolf's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It's Stephen King-level writing in terms of engaging storytelling. A decisive voice.

The reason it won't be a re-read is due to the same relationship I have with Grady Hendrix's work. It's gross, which, believe it or not, is a compliment.

I can do psychological torment, body horror, monsters...but throw in crawling bugs and now it's icky.

This and the other visceral descriptions of everything the characters see are intense for someone who can really put their imagination into someone's words.

All that said, it was a great story with heroes and villains and secret plots and jump scares and fidgety dread.

I loved the way the boys and their Scout Leader interacted. Getting to know each boy was either great or fascinating as the story progressed.

The ending felt right. Same feeling as movies like Disturbing Behavior or The Faculty, though the plot is far different.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Confinement, and Child death

Moderate: Body shaming and Bullying

mel_j's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense

• 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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Cannibalism, Bullying, Child death, and Death

Minor: Confinement and Cursing

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So this is the second book i’ve read about worms this year, so that’s fun. 

This was so sad, I didn’t expect to feel so connected to the characters by the end, but i was actually heartbroken by Newt’s death in the end, and Max being the only one left but never being able to return to normality was just devastating. 

The horror was so effective in this, the descriptions of the boys’ demise was so visceral, and the things that Shelley did to his troop mates made me feel so horrid, he was a great hidden evil character, and I was pretty damn happy he died in the end 

Overall I think this is a solid contamination horror book 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Gore, Violence, Animal cruelty, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic friendship, Death, Medical trauma, Vomit, Self harm, and Terminal illness

pjsans's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• 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: Death, Gore, Animal death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Child death

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Bullying, and Fire/Fire injury

houseofjules's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.75

 Great writing, gory, gory story. Addictive and repulsive. Part of me wished I had looked up TW/CW's (which I will mention below) but overall, a good story.

Everything below could and should be considered spoilers.

I was not very fond of...

the ending, as it was left up for interpretation. However, personally, I would say Max (the lone survivor) was not infected. If anything a more devastation ending would have been an unaliving considering how traumatizing the whole event would have been to Max, survivor's guilt and all that, plus the way he was marginalized by the whole town afterwards.

The TW/CW are...

descriptive animal death & torture, gore, infection, parasitic worms and insect torture, brief sexual content, body mutilation, and on the lower end bullying language. Also one of the kids is a literal psychopath.

I enjoyed the format of this book, as there are interviews and new clippings etc. peppered in between chapters. It's more of a 3.75 The writing and the format are right up my alley, but the contents was at time difficult to get through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Self harm, Child death, Sexual content, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Murder, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

The book contains

explicit descriptions of a parasitic worm that devastates a group of 14 year old scouts. There's rampant paranoia, body mutilation and truly disguising things occurring. The animal cruelty happens a few times, including a gorilla experiencing this parasite. A kitten being drowned and a sea turtle being killed by 2 of the scouts.

charlie_woodchipper's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

3.0

Kind of disappointed to be honest. Horror without violence against girls or women is extremely rare, so I was happy to pick up this book which targeted only boys and men. But it ended up being pretty boring to me, and not at all as gory and violent as people said it was. Also, the characters are basically NPCs, just archetype (Nerd, bully, sociopath, Jackass etc.) which makes them boring and unrelatable too. I didn't care if they lived or die. I wish this book would have been more depraved and extreme, with people that feel like actual people

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

Moderate: Bullying and Fatphobia

Minor: Misogyny

skywhales's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

this didn't like frighten me to my core or anything though it was satisfyingly grotesque but it did make me deeply sad and a little nauseous. i consider that a win kind of 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Violence, Bullying, and Child abuse

keyofthekey's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Dysphoria, Cursing, Violence, Gore, Excrement, Mass/school shootings, Vomit, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Death, Fatphobia, and Mental illness