Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Woom

CW / TW that isnt in Storygraph list : Descriptive scene of a minor engaging in sexual behavior

I honestly don't know how to rate this. I loved the characters and found myself connecting to them somehow, finding the whole

rebirthing

thing to be strangely therapeutic in a sense. However, the complete lack of respect Angel shows at the end for Shyla made me frown, despite knowing it was not out of character. As well, the n word having made an appearance twice was also very offputting. It was so out of place, I can't imagine why Ralston chose to add it in the first place. It's a shame, as it was a very lovely story otherwise.

Content Warnings

effys's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark fast-paced

3.0

This is a hard book to rate or review because I can’t say I enjoyed this book by any means but it’s not the sort of book you’re meant to enjoy (if someone told me they enjoyed this book I think I’d back away slowly and then run as far away as I could) it’s definitely a gruesome book that’s not for the feint of heart and I would not take trigger warnings lightly for this book it’s brutal honestly.

Content Warnings

smc92's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad tense 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

3.5

Content Warnings

cakeboxing's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings