Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

The Sluts by Dennis Cooper

16 reviews

tbrnichols's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.5

A truly sick book, some of the most depraved things I've ever read. I think my main problem with it is that the violence depicted didn't seem like a caring and sexy sort of violence? Or even like a personal, domineering sort of violence, instead it felt impersonal and rote, meaningless and horrible. I think this book may have temporarily ruined violence in sex for me by inserting the doubt that those doing violence to me are doing it without the attachment and value it deserves. I think there actually is a way to write about this sort of thing in a hopeful way, and there are definitely glimpses of that here, but being surrounded by such depravity and hatred can make it hard to sift those out. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, Torture, Body horror, Self harm, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Blood, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Vomit, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy

horrorhayleigh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Abortion, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Body shaming, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

sleaterkenneth's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

I truly don't know how to rate this one!! Shocked it's for BOOK CLUB that's for sure!!!!!! My brain feels squeezed 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Medical content, Murder, Body horror, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Drug abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, and Trafficking

Minor: Alcoholism

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

---

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

---

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

Minor: Kidnapping and Abortion

Geez, these content warnings are a doozy.