Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

200 reviews

itskiki's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Gore, Self harm, Body horror, Blood, Fatphobia, Murder, Vomit, Animal death, and Child death

kristianna17's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Body horror, Bullying, Vomit, Gore, Death, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, and Murder

r_o_s_e's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Violence, Body horror, and Child death

Moderate: Body shaming, Self harm, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Bullying, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, and Medical content

Minor: Cursing

smolhandsdan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Death, Gore, Animal death, Child death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Child abuse, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Self harm, Violence, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Torture

felyn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book fucked me up. I kept having to take breaks.

There's no on-page villain per se. There's a scientist who's not on page. One of the characters is a young serial-killer-in-training but he's not the antagonist. (He's *an* antagonist, sure, but not *the* antagonist.)

But you can't villainize an insentient parasite.

So you're reading this book about a group of 14-year-old boys from PEI, stranded on a small island for what's supposed to be an ordinary Scouting trip, and the only adult with them is quickly neutralised... and it's horrifying in part because of the descriptions of what the infected characters think and do, but also watch as the entire cast loses their grasp on reality. Wondering who's going to die next and how, because it's not just one thing that can kill you, it's exposure, it's starvation or dehydration, it's the parasite, it's the other humans, it's getting injured, it's falling off a cliff... And you as the reader is still there watching all this, wondering who is going to die next and who, if anyone, survives.

You get snippets of what the people on the mainland (er, back on the main island? back on PEI.) are doing and going through, but they are footnotes against the body of the main story.

Plus there's a lot of gross descriptive text in general that I am just not here for, but I'm sure others wouldn't have any issues with. You'd think that having aphantasia, this wouldn't bother me so much BUT NO.

Anyway, I'm going to go binge some sex pollen alien erotica now as a palate cleanser. Then I'll probably go read The Handyman Method, because I'm a masochist.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Animal death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

vyralvyris's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This is the first horror book I've read in a while that I just cannot wait to read again.  Can't wait for the movie to suck.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, and Fatphobia

Brutal animal testing, cruelty, and death including insects, a sea turtle, a chimpanzee, a cat, and others I cannot directly recall

rat_leoo's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

spooky_taylor's review against another edition

challenging dark tense

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic friendship, and Self harm

Moderate: Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Vomit, and Suicide

Minor: Police brutality and Body shaming

jamiee_f's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

2.0

This book was so hyped up, I was prepared to love it! A supernatural/menacing force collides with a boy scout troop on a remote island? Oooh!

However, what this actually ended up being was a gross lord of the flies retelling with more animal abuse and more sociopathic boys. Not sure what the takeaway was supposed to be with this story....

it truly was just a bunch of fucked up kids torturing each other while they become infected with the insatiable hunger the government accidentally set loose.

there were some redeeming qualities with the open ended final portion of the book. I liked how maybe the last boy is returning to the island because he DOES have the hunger, but more likely he is just hungering for the last time he ever knew normalcy.

I just wished for more story, more character motivation, less gore and pointless gross.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical trauma, Death, Abandonment, Violence, Bullying, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Stalking, Gore, Body horror, Murder, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Child death, and Blood

whaabzreads's review

dark sad tense medium-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? No

2.75

Well, that was disgusting.

I have read a lot of horror in my time but this was the first time I had to skip pages in a book because it was too much for me.

Heed the content warnings.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Body horror, Vomit, Blood, Mental illness, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying