Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Sluts by Dennis Cooper

59 reviews

supriti's review

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Torture

gibigabi's review against another edition

challenging dark funny fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness and Pedophilia

dhernandez's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

romehsaur's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Let me preface this review by telling how I found this book. I recently read "Things have gotten worse since we last spoke" by Eric Larocca and I saw a review of another user reccomending this one book because according to them Eric's novella was trying to be "The Sluts" without getting what made it great.

Now that I have read it, I agree. What makes this work a great piece of literature is not the degeneracy and the desire of destruction of the characters. But the fact that it plays with its own framing in a masterful way, squeezing every single drop out of the fact that this is supposed to be a online review forum in which people will go for drama, scam and sockpuppet. Even the fact that the site admin keeps reminding people that they will lock the thread if this keeps derailing is a good touch that adds so much. 

But yeah, this book gets fucking dark and fucked up, but in a sense in which it works when you think that this is internet bs in a sex worker forum in the early 2000's

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Abortion

sunnybopeep's review against another edition

4.5

(Inhale, exhale.)

Whew. Holy smokes, that was… intense. There isn’t really any other way to describe this book. The entirety of its contents is intense.

Notably, The Sluts tackles the age old question of “Why would someone just come on the internet and lie?”

This might have been the most gripping, riveting mystery I’ve ever read. I mean, it’s not a mystery novel, but the plot revolves around the mysterious identity of a titular character who is larger-than-life in the minds of the people who frequent a particular website. He essentially becomes worshipped as an ideal, even as everyone forms their own twisted and perverted fantasies about him.

Stylistically, the story is told in the form of online reviews, fax correspondences, and forum posts. I thought that was interesting and unique. It also helped to “set the scene.” Some people complain about the ending, but fuck those people. I was happy with the resolution, and it made sense thematically (the point of the book is to draw awareness to how creepy the internet is).

Wow, it was honestly so good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Kidnapping and Abortion

Geez, these content warnings are a doozy.

kimis's review

wouldn't call it so much horror as torture porn. the set up was a little confusing, especially at first, and the mystery of trying to figure out exactly what was going on isn't to me interesting enough to be worth having to dig through another 150 or so pages of what promised to be much of the same (which so far was limited to reading about a potentially underage boy being abused, raped and mutilated over and over again by a series of disgusting men). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Terminal illness, Torture, and Murder

shubh_reads_constantly's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Degrading, disturbing and utterly FUCKED up. Reading Dennis Cooper's "The Sluts" is an experience all by itself. It mentions few of the most triggering and taboo sexual fantasies which leave the reader with unsettling thoughts so profound that words are not enough to describe them. At last the unique format in which this novel is written will make you continue reading until you find all the answers you were looking for. 4 body fluid lathered stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

PS :- 👨‍⚕️ 🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮
 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Suicide attempt

trappedinabelljar's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Excrement, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming

queerbiblioboy's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer