Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

The Troop by Nick Cutter

40 reviews

taemaeto's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Blood, Murder, Torture, Death, Gore, Violence, Animal death, Confinement, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

swformentano's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Medical content, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

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

ohhveronica's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

So this is the second book i’ve read about worms this year, so that’s fun. 

This was so sad, I didn’t expect to feel so connected to the characters by the end, but i was actually heartbroken by Newt’s death in the end, and Max being the only one left but never being able to return to normality was just devastating. 

The horror was so effective in this, the descriptions of the boys’ demise was so visceral, and the things that Shelley did to his troop mates made me feel so horrid, he was a great hidden evil character, and I was pretty damn happy he died in the end 

Overall I think this is a solid contamination horror book 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Gore, Violence, Animal cruelty, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic friendship, Death, Medical trauma, Vomit, Self harm, and Terminal illness

amandak87's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content

caro_mac's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Terminal illness, Violence, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying, Cannibalism, Confinement, Body shaming, Medical content, Physical abuse, Death, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Minor: Vomit, Excrement, and Suicide

alsavini's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Eating disorder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Child death, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, Gore, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture