Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Woom by Duncan Ralston

33 reviews

quietlex's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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? Yes

This was pure shit. I bought this because I saw a tiktok video claiming that it was a really good horror novel, and now I’m disappointed to have wasted my money. The “Extreme Horror Novel” label on the cover really means “disgusting sexual assault” in a bunch of different ways. I’ve always hated “horror” that ends up being just a sick man’s sexual fantasies/traumas. You can write a good horror that incorporates the good and bad of sex, without having the entire book revolving around the gore and other atrocities that can happen. The title “Woom” is accurate since the thing is chock full of vagina! Each chapter has some horrible thing happening to a poor woman’s body. There’s absolutely nothing scary about this book, it’s just flat out gross. The story telling is awfully drab and boring, with vile things being described blandly in order to grab your attention. It doesn’t work. The only good thing about this book is that it is so short. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

dee_elizabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

reading__raven's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, and Pregnancy

gmarie12's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

lauryn_amber26's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

caffeinated_or_chaos's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Disturbingly dark. Not at all what I expected — but heinous nonetheless. This nontraditional tale of horror will definitely fuck up your brain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

cakeboxing's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

0.5

I don't want to go into too much detail so that I can leave this a spoiler free review. 

Be sure to check trigger warnings if you read this book. 

I bought and read this book on kindle immediately after watching a tiktok saying it was the most disturbing thing they had every read. While I don't think it's deserving of that title (at least for me), I can definitely agree that it's not your typical horror novel. 

The writing style was decent, though the author felt the need to explain everything to the reader, at least eventually. Because of this, I saw the ending coming from a mile off. That was surprising to me, since a lot of people had said they'd never read something so horrible and that the ending had left them in shock. 

I haven't read very many horror stories, and I've never read any body horror so this was my first. I would not say that I am particularly accustomed to scenes like these, I don't go out of my way to read about or watch bloody depictions of various violations to the human body. Maybe I'm just a millennial existing in a dystopian society called the US of A, where I've become desensitized to gore in mainstream media, politics, and everyday life. 

All that said, this book did literally nothing to really freak me out. (I really don't want to know what that says about me as a person.) Sure, there were definitely scenes that were grotesque, where the descriptions made me a little sick. To me, the majority of the disturbing scenes are in the first half of the book. At around a quarter through, I started to feel uncomfortable in my own apartment even when not reading, and I became scared for one of the characters - everything a person wants in a horror book. But those feelings quickly faded as the pacing changed and the plot became obvious and predictable. Since I saw the end coming, it wasn't very satisfying or unsettling. Someone who doesn't see the end coming, however, would likely find it to be incredibly shocking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

courtvsbooks's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

I don’t even know what to say about this book. Someone recommended it as a super disturbing book and I thought why not. Was it disturbing? Yes. Did it make me not want to read it? No. Honestly I’ve read worse, but I really enjoyed how the parallels came into fruition. Major trigger warnings though for anyone reading this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

rachelreads2453's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is insane, in the best way. Brilliantly crafted. Deeply unsettling. Trigger warnings for.. pretty much everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Abortion, and Sexual harassment