Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Sluts by Dennis Cooper

7 reviews

ribbenkast's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is not for everyone, and definitely not for the faint of heart. People are quick to say that about a lot of horror, but this time please heed the warning. 

However, I do have to give this book 5 ⭐️. It just does everything right. First there is the mystery: the book mainly consists of forum posts on an gay escort rating website in the early 2000's. There is no way to verify which accounts are real and which accounts are fake (even though the poor webmaster does try). Dennis Cooper does not take the reader by the hand. You have to do some detective work and decide for yourself what is real and what is fake. 

Secondly, it uses gore and violence effectively within the story. (So many times in extreme horror, gore is just simply there for the shock value. I find that rather overdone and boring). Some of the described acts are so vile, I had to put the book down for a bit. Whether these things actually happened or whether these were just the perverted ramblings of someone getting their weird rocks off remains to be debated. (Although we get some answers in the end.) 

When does a fantasy cross the line? What is ethical even if someone supposedly concented? It is a cruel account of what happens when people egg each other on to live their most perverted fantasies. This book written in 2004 is an important early conversation about Internet safety and mass delerium when people can hide in anonymity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cancer, Alcohol, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Stalking, Excrement, Gore, Slavery, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Addiction, Death, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Classism, Hate crime, Suicide attempt, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, and Drug use

j_yarbrough's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Stalking, Abortion, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Addiction, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Vomit, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Chronic illness, Drug use, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Medical content, Cancer, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Slavery, and Violence

angelicardale's review against another edition

this book is disgusting honestly lol .. exquisite corpse had more tact than a single page of this book did (and that was another one-star book for me). i hate that i had no idea what i was getting myself into. for all the graphic and horrific depictions of pedophilia and csa in this book (that read less like tragedy and more like torture p0rn, tbh), i really really wish it'd been explicitly stated in the blurb, or at the very least, in a content warnings list ANYWHERE in the book. there's not even an author's note. as a writer, i understand to a certain degree, but it's just plain negligent to not warn readers or categorize it in the right genre !!!! this was under general fiction at barnes & noble. it should be considered splatterpunk tbh. anyway screw tiktok for recommending me this book it was awful and not worth finishing imo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Self harm, Rape, Alcohol, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Domestic abuse, Death, Chronic illness, Addiction, Pedophilia, Blood, Trafficking, Violence, Terminal illness, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Medical trauma, Child death, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Body horror, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Drug abuse

josephsand's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

3.5

 insanely gripping and completely unputdownable.. 

the last third is some of the nastiest, most stomach turning stuff i’ve ever read. my jaw was agape the entire time. totally vile & expertly told, what a story…

the content warnings are not a joke this book is filthy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Addiction, Gun violence, Murder, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Blood, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Gore, Kidnapping, Body horror, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Vomit

fluoresensitive's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

3.75

I... there aren't enough words in any language to properly convey the absolute roller coaster I was taken on. I just... What the actual fuck? What the actual holy fuck, holy fucking fuck God in heaven? 

I need... I'm gonna write another substack, an addendum to Filthiness is Next to Godliness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Trafficking, Addiction, Confinement, Excrement, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Torture, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Violence, Death, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Medical content, and Vomit

nadletab's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

holy shit

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Torture, Addiction, Terminal illness, Vomit, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

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

Moderate: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Ableism

Minor: Abortion