Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

46 reviews

orcamagicka's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Death, Drug abuse, Cannibalism, Sexual violence, Drug use, Gore, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Outing, Alcohol, Police brutality, Sexism, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Minor: Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, and Xenophobia

gmelrose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

The book was interesting. It was the right amount of gruesome and intriguing, though it was quite ambiguous. In style of writing it was straightforward and easy to understand, it definitely made me queasy. As for the plot, I didn’t really understand it, though it ended quite surprisingly; granted the book was short, and it made me not want to put it down, I read it fast. Maybe the fact that it was fast-paced and a bit distanced from a proper reason for it. The book is clearly character-driven, and the characterization was the best part, in my opinion. I liked the switch up between narrators and their languages, a neat detail. A thing that really threw me off was the use of the n-word, coming from a white writer, not glamorous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

gryflette's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

jazmynwn's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Terminal illness, Gore, Murder, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Torture

Moderate: Police brutality, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

Minor: Vomit

butyougotmysoul's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

4.0

This is my second time reading this book. My first time reading it was about 10 years ago so there was a LOT I’d forgotten.

So, this book is very difficult to read, but I enjoyed it anyway.  At first glance this novel is nothing but gore and sex and nothing else, but if you look closely to when it was written and the underlying subject matter it is actually quite intricate.  The book explores the grief, anger and horror of the AIDS epidemic, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. I feel that there are several ways to interpret the characters of this novel, and one way that I have chosen to do so is to interpret them as the stages of grief.  Lucas Ransom's character is especially interesting to me because he is the only character that I feel had a whole redemption arc.  Anyway, yeah.  How does one talk about this novel intelligently?  I'm having brain fog at the moment.  I may come back to edit this at some point, or I may not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Torture

hannahlois's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

4.5

For those considering  reading this book - if you are at all squeamish or sensitive to this subject matter (graphic depictions of death, murder, necrophilia, torture, rape) - do not pick this up. Don’t even attempt it.  The content warnings are there for a reason, pay attention to them.
Exquisite Corpse kind of feels like the book version of Requiem for a Dream. Requiem for a Dream is a masterpiece of a film, but I wouldn’t say it’s a “good” movie, not in the enjoyable sense. And it’s not one most people watch more than once as it’s a absolutely hellish piece of film making. Exquisite Corpse is a mean, nasty, and hellish piece of literature. I usually only give 4 or 5 stars to books I would read again. I do not think I will read this again, however, it is worthy of more than 3 stars. The searing prose is pitch perfect, and the author told a compelling story. You shouldn’t want to keep reading, but you do. They suck you in. You know you have to see how this all plays out, but you also know it’s not going to end well.  If you have the stomach for it, I do recommend this book.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Torture

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Incest and Racial slurs