Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

65 reviews

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

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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

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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.

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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

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

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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

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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

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.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying

atalea's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Eating disorder, Violence, Child death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, and Body horror

Moderate: Confinement, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Bullying, Fatphobia, Excrement, Gaslighting, Torture, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit

athompson0429's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Super gross, but I loved it! Very well done, and the descriptions are incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Murder, Mental illness, Animal death, Child death, Torture, Bullying, and Gore

Minor: Vomit, Self harm, Medical content, and Child abuse

dan_tee's review

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

2.75

Although I thought Cutters writing was good, Shelly ruined this book for me.

The addition of a pointless "crazed psychopath" killer did nothing but make me wish the book didn't have him in it. He was a boring, uninspired character who provided no more tension than the initial premise, and only served to detract from it. He wasn't believable, and it nearly made me stop reading the book. The more I think about it the more annoyed I am by this character, to the point that his pointlessness ruined an otherwise solidly good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, and Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia

hollypat36's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

First Cutter novel. Loved it. Will be reading more by him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Self harm, Mental illness, Gore, Body horror, and Murder