Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Quicksand by Steve Toltz

1 review

emoryscott's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

1.0

I was interested in this book based on the cover and the inner-jacket summary. For about 50 pages, I was really intrigued and excited to see how the story would play out. Toltz's writing is reminiscent of Vonnegut, and at the beginning of the novel, I found the dialogue very insightful and thought-provoking. 

 However, this book ultimately felt flat. As other reviewers have mentioned here and on Goodreads, this book could have been 100 pages shorter. It felt as though this was the first "brain-dump draft" where the author was just focused on getting everything out onto the page and then forgot that one of the most important things about writing a readable book is to say less, not more. The author has an incredible talent with words and crafts very thought-provoking ideas, but after I struggled through yet another page-long run-on sentence, I became irritated. I ended up finishing the book, but only out of a desire to give this book a fair shot through the end. The characters are offensive and the comedy is dark to the point of being inappropriate. Reading this book made me uncomfortable, and I probably won't be reading A Fraction of the Whole, despite it's good reviews. I just don't know if Toltz is for me. 

Also, MAJOR TW for r*pe and s*icide throughout. Very detailed description of r*pe in prison and the entire book is basically about the main character trying to kill himself. The themes dealt with in this book are likely to be triggering for many readers. There are just so many heavy topics discussed, page after page. Kind of exhausting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Murder, Abortion, Infidelity, Addiction, Cancer, Body shaming, Death, Ableism, Islamophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gore, Antisemitism, Body horror, Child death, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Blood, Racism, Self harm, Car accident, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Torture, Death of parent, Excrement, Drug use, Grief, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Slavery, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Suicide, Violence, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking