Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Les Somnambules by Chuck Wendig

19 reviews

thecrimsoncorsair's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Other than the fact that Wendig absolutely loves the word canoodle far too much, and needlessly made this book longer than was necessary. It really was a fantastic book. I couldn't stop listening to it. Blew through the whole thing in a few days. I had to know what was going on with the big mystery surrounding the white mask disease. And it sadly ended pretty much how I figured it would. Which wasn't very surprising at all. Pretty cliche ending, but I am excited to start on the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Rape, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Bullying, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Dementia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Body shaming, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Classism, Cursing, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Drug use, Racism, War, Alcohol, Excrement, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

Minor: Cancer

alibrareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This was a good book, but it was also too long in my opinion (at the moment it is the longest audiobook I’ve ever listened to at just over 32 hours). In terms of the narration, neither of them can do British accents to save their life, and I found Xe Sands’s frequent vocal fry to be abrasive.

There were moments that were truly horrific and graphic and made me actually start to feel sick, a lot of really depressing imagery, and this was really not a fun or hopeful type of book (not that I expected it to be). It was fascinating at times, but other times there just seemed to be details and details and asides and asides that could have been edited down.

Several of the characters are most certainly meant to be unlikeable, and I’m not sure if Shana was meant to be one of them but I found her to be SO annoying and bratty. I didn’t care much for what was going on with the rock star whose name I’ve already forgotten, Matthew and Benji’s POVs started to get more intense and interesting as the story went on, and while I didn’t like Shana I was interested in the flock.

The human baddies were gun-obsessed, racist, rural Republican caricatures that definitely seem to reflect the author’s own personal political views, in case that’s something that might deter you from reading (or maybe encourage you to).

The ending was pretty ominous and does make me interested in how things ultimately end… But this book was SO long, and I didn’t LOVE it, so I’m not sure if it’s worth putting myself through an even longer sequel.

YouTube review: https://youtu.be/m4HwdMl31rk 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Blood

keyofthekey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Body horror, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Cursing, Hate crime, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Death

leonoor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

What an amazing book. I was captivated by the story from the beginning. You get the point of view of several characters, and Wendig adapted his style of writing to the character he was writing about. Matthew's character arc especially was really interesting. 

The book was written before the Covid pandemic but Wendig predicted pretty well how society reacts to a deadly disease. That made for an extra interesting read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Gun violence

Moderate: Suicide

readerrho's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Bullying, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Gore, Rape, Terminal illness, Racial slurs, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Torture

marleens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I got this book as a gift for Christmas 2019, so right before COVID kicked off. In the years after I didn’t dare read it, as I was avoiding all “pandemicky” books, fearing they would hit too close to home. And now that I’ve finally read it, I’m glad I waited until I felt up for it. Obviously the pandemic in this book gets way worse than COVID ever did, but especially the way people respond to it felt eerily real. 
It’s a chunker and it took me weeks to work my way through, but I loved every step of the way along the plot. Great writing and great characters, and I loved the switching between multiple POVs. Also really liked the bits at the start of the chapters giving little insights into what was being talked about online or in the media. The story end was satisfying to me and could have easily been a standalone, but apparently there is a sequel which I will for sure be reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Gun violence, Body horror, Confinement, Dementia, Rape, Racism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Religious bigotry

yruss972's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

Too dark, dystopian, and violent for me.
12 monkeys meets The Walking Dead meets The 100

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, War, Drug abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Medical content, Racism, Hate crime, Abandonment, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Grief, Violence, Death, Rape, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Torture, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs

cassie7e's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is DARK. And achingly long. It feels like run of the mill sci fi until about halfway through when the white supremacists get to hurt people on page. TW for rape, torture, imprisonment, etc. I was not prepared given how mildly graphic topics were handled til that point, with sex being all fade to black and most injuries happening off page or in backstories. And then each sci fi revelation in the back half adds a sinister layer to the whole plot. 

However the politics and desire to seem progressive are stark, and come up in places that just don't flow naturally with the story, like the author needed to jam them in even when they weren't really relevant to the story. Especially when things like climate change are thrown into lines of exposition, all tell and no show, no inherent link to the plot beyond "the world is already doooomed!!" which is just not compelling on its own. This to say that this book is not escapist, and may annoy you even if you agree with its values like I do. If I'd known how despicably polictical the arc would be I might not have picked this up, or at least been better prepared when things got darker fast.

This book also hits closer to home because it describes so so well how people reacted to COVID, before it even happened. In retrospect this isn't surprising; the COVID reactions and White Mask reactions stem from movements and ideologies already stoked in years leading up. But this may make it extra real for readers sensitive to pandemic stories.

Surprise aro/ace mention right at the start! Love seeing this exist in more books. But it doesn't really come up again, and the one other time it's referenced it doesn't really seem to be an accurate understanding of what asexuality is.

One of my least favorite audio narrators, makes every character sound aloof and cocky and judgy or hesitant and whiney. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Torture, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Addiction, Cursing, Dementia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Police brutality, Pregnancy, Medical content, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Child death

chaptersofchase's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

Wanderers 🚶🏽🚶🏼‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️

Genre: Science Fiction
Trope: Dystopian
Format: 🎧
Audiobook Narration: ☆☆☆☆☆
Pub Date: 7.2.2019
Star Rating: ☆☆☆.5

Let me start by saying that when I ordered this book, I didn’t look at how many pages it was. When it arrived, I thought, ‘Oh dear, what have I gotten myself into?’ because Wanderers is 845 pages!! So, instead of reading, I decided to listen to the 35-hour audiobook __  If you haven’t had a chance to read Wanderers yet, I highly recommend it as it kept me entertained and motivated to stay busy with projects. 

I was fully invested in the story from the start - I’ve always loved dystopian books/shows (even if they make me incredibly anxious). Still, Wanderers was even more interesting as the author gave us scientific background on other outbreaks. At one point, I had to stop to see when the book was published (2019) because it was so eerily familiar to the start of the pandemic we’re just coming out of. Truthfully, I’m blown away by the amount of research the author, Chuck Wendig, had to do before writing this. 

At some point in the book, the story takes a more graphic turn (please be aware that there are many triggers throughout the book). This graphic turn seemed more in place with the author’s other book I’ve read (Book of Accidents - horror). While I was still invested in the story and characters,  I had to skip entire sections as they became too much. 

Overall, The Wanderers is perfect for the dystopian book lovers. I will eventually read the next book in this saga, Wayward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, and Sexual violence

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

5.0

Powerful book especially in the post 2020 world. Hard to believe it was published in 2019. Definitely hard to read at times but one of the few books I had trouble putting down at night because I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Torture, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Chronic illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, Sexual assault, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dementia, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Medical content, Drug use, Dementia, and Cursing