Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt

18 reviews

arlenren's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Suicide, Addiction, Incest, Infertility, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Death, Pedophilia, Animal death, Dysphoria, Medical content, Alcohol, Child abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Blood, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Gore, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Kidnapping, and Domestic abuse

skogsheks's review against another edition

challenging dark tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Medical content, Body shaming, Homophobia, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Murder, Transphobia, Vomit, Dysphoria, Excrement, Incest, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Gore, Hate crime, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

gaeliloveweiss's review

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Grief, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Incest, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Body horror, Dysphoria, Infertility, Mass/school shootings, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

yassassin's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Even though the book contains a trigger warning, please pay attention to the warnings included in my review and on this site before reading. If there are any topics you need or want to avoid, chances are this book covers them.
Now onto the review. If you've read Rumfitt's book Tell Me I'm Worthless, you'll probably soon realize that Brainwyrms uses a different metaphor for the same issues: rising transphobia in the UK and the far-right radicalization pipeline. This isn't either praise or critique, in my opinon both metaphors work well to take you on a rollecoaster of feeling disgusted and terrified by the supernatural horrors, only to realize the segments accurately depicting reality are just as horrific. After all, what is a dangerous idea you find online other than a vicious worm trying to slither its way into your brain and multiply?

If the segments detailing worms oozing out of a TERF's eyes caused me to stop reading for a second to catch my breath, the passages about the same woman purposely misgendering and attacking her trans child made me want to scream in despair.

You're likely to either finish this book with a deep feeling of depression at the state of trans rights, or set it aside with the need to fight harder than ever to make sure it never goes as far as what the book describes.
Then there is the other component of the novel: a very deep, detailed dive into extreme kink, mixed with a good portion of body horror and absolute psychological f*ckery. Even if I didn't let it get to me too much, I won't pretend like I didn't struggle to make it through certain chapters. I'm not completely convinced all of it was necessary, even in a horror novel.

If the author herself feels the need to literally address the reader in the middle of the book just to warn them of the extremity of the following chapters, I can't help but feel at least some of it is somewhat gimmicky. I found myself thinking: the social transphobic horror was horrifying and anxiety-inducing enough, are you sure the point will be reinforced by including incest, detailed descriptions of masturbation with animal feces or random unrelated stories about suicides and murdered influencers?

I was about to rate Brainwyrms 4 stars, because I did enjoy reading it (in some twisted way) and I appreciate someone taking the extreme route to speaking out on the situation in the UK and elsewhere. Then while writing this review, I realized the two main aspects of the story didn't blend well in the finale, which felt simultaneously too grand, and not grand enough. Or better still, not satisfying enough. Not terrible enough to make a very ugly point, not cathartic enough to make it all feel worth it. Too open, but too concrete at the same time. One day, I will have to find the strength to do a reread, maybe. Hopefully, by then the world won't be taken over by Brainwyrms. I hope Alison Rumfitt gets to write many more deranged books that will make me question her sanity, and mine for reading all of them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Incest, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Child abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Violence, Physical abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Body shaming, Alcohol, Medical content, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Addiction, Blood, and Pregnancy

chelseakado's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Body horror, Medical content, Excrement, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Body shaming

Minor: Incest and Deadnaming

ee_comins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexism, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Transphobia, Torture, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Addiction, Hate crime, Incest, Medical trauma, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Suicide, Abandonment, and Suicidal thoughts

lakecryptid's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Blood, Animal death, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Dysphoria, Excrement, Medical content, Transphobia, Gore, Incest, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Hate crime, and Self harm

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Body horror, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Suicide, Violence, Rape, Blood, Drug use, Mental illness, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, Deadnaming, Murder, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Excrement, Incest, Transphobia, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Ableism, Genocide, Chronic illness, Death of parent, War, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Police brutality, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Trafficking, and Antisemitism

jemmers's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Drug use, Medical content, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Blood, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Body shaming, Confinement, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Abortion, Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Cursing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

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

3.5

I have no idea what I just read

This was so so weird, but I think I enjoyed it? There were parts that made me feel so icky, the language and descriptions are grotesquely detailed and don’t shy away from anything.

This book certainly isn’t for the faint hearted or easily offended, there’s a lot of dark and disturbing stuff that probably isn’t for your casual horror reader. I do think there should have been a content warning on the back of the book because this was being sold in Waterstones where anyone could pick it up not realising how graphic and sexual it is until they begin reading. 

I can’t say I was a huge fan of the writing style, the ‘slam poetry’ kind of sections were a little hard to follow at times. I get the effect they were going for, but it was just a little difficult to keep up with. 

I do think the author was trying a little too hard to make this book disgusting, and it felt at times that the actual message of the story was being strayed away from in favour of grotesque descriptions. I get what the worms and the whole community around that was trying to represent, but i don’t know, it felt a little bit like it was missing the mark at times. 

I don’t really know what to take away from this book other than that i’m now really fucking grossed out by worms

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Kidnapping, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Sexual content, Mental illness, Blood, Body shaming, Drug use, Dysphoria, Incest, Medical content, Abandonment, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Body horror, Cursing, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Classism, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Rape, Sexual assault, and Vomit