Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

63 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

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.

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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

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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

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.

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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

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

_stephk10's review

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

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

2.5

Terrible writing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Gore, Blood, Death, Child death, and Body horror

Moderate: Body shaming, Toxic friendship, Fatphobia, and Torture

thebearnest's review

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Violence, Body horror, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

katieo156's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Body horror to the max. This book was dark and did not let up, and there was more than one moment where I had to take a breather. I think this pushed me to my limit especially because of the age of the characters, and combining that with body horror made it a tough read. I really liked the format-

past/current/future with news articles and coverage about the situation made it feel like a much richer world and connected each character back to humanity.

Definitely do not pick this up unless you're ready for gore, seriously disturbed character(s), and very little light to be seen at the end of the tunnel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Confinement, Murder, Self harm, Body horror, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Vomit, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Toxic friendship

mewpasaurus's review

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

Normally, I'd be keeping (and re-reading) any book I rate this highly, however, Nick Cutter's The Troop is an exception; it's too gruesome and descriptive when it comes to wanton animal cruelty. It's incredibly well written and engaging and it definitely does body horror well (something I find hard to find in written works), but I just don't care to re-read accounts of squishy, gross torture of animals and the whiny, teenage narratives of the main characters.

If you like body horror, you'll probably find this is a good/fast read. It's also worth noting that while the characters aren't necessarily likeable, they are not two dimensional and do seem to be complex in the way I would say most pre-teens/teenagers tend to be, which made it more believable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Vomit, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Animal death, Homophobia, Murder, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Violence, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Gore, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, and Death