Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana

110 reviews

e_gracereads's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Again I… got what I signed up for. Despite the gore, despite the violence, despite the disgusting visuals and the true sense of dread, Triana’s writing is practically inescapable. As much of a joy as anything extreme horror can be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Child death, and Death

zea_d_writing's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I cannot recommend this book to anyone. Check trigger warnings and definitely do your research before deciding whether or not to read this book. 

I went into this knowing it was an extreme horror novel: which means I knew that its sole purpose was to be horrific, vile, disgusting, sick, revolting, shocking purely to be shocking, and potentially even offensive. I knew it would likely delve into taboo topics, as these kinds of books often do. 

And I wasn’t wrong. 

This book wasn’t actually as graphic as I expected. Don’t get me wrong…there are absolutely very graphic, very disturbing, sickening scenes and themes depicted in this book. It just wasn’t as over the top as I expected given what I had heard about this book. 
And I actually found the lore of this book really interesting and thought the storytelling itself was very effective. 

But this book is absolutely disgusting, sick, and offensive. 
I hated Lori, the main character. She’s vile in every way conceivable. Which is exactly how you’re supposed to feel about her - especially by the end. 

This book features pretty severe racism and the fetishization of Asian women. It uses slurs (g slur) and describes very graphic violence and SA towards these groups. There is also severe blatant ableism (both in how the disabled character is depicted and how the other characters treat, talk to, and talk about the disabled character. The r slur is used more than once…as well as other derogatory terms. 
The book features graphic incest and SA, murder, torture, dismemberment, violence and abuse, eating disorders, and a whole host of other triggers warnings. 

Its dark. Its graphic. Its offensive. Its sick.  I found the story itself weirdly interesting despite how twisted it was and the lore and worldbuilding were actually very intriguing. 

I’m giving this three stars because it did what it intended to do and at no point was anything written within treated like it was supposed to be anywhere near normal or moral or okay. Its an extreme horror novel and everything and everyone within was entirely fucked up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Eating disorder, Incest, Racism, Violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Body horror, Chronic illness, Gore, Grief, Racial slurs, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexism, and Torture

rachelparker's review

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child death, Death, Incest, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual violence, Suicide, Self harm, Murder, Racism, and Rape

waverlyloyd's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

this book was so insane and brutal and dark and disturbing that it feels wrong to give it any kind of rating. so I won’t. If you are easily disturbed, scared, or grossed out, do NOT read this book. It was gruesome and graphic and sick. Seriously the most disturbing book I have ever read. I found it fascinating and thrilling, and it’s pretty hard to shock me, but this book did just that. i’m thankful it was only 165 pages. im going to go and watch a disney movie now … :-)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Gore, Incest, Blood, Body horror, Death, Child death, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Violence, and Toxic relationship

booknerdnative's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Gore, Suicide, Medical trauma, Body horror, Blood, Incest, Ableism, Racism, Violence, Murder, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Death, and Eating disorder

mothercoconuts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

*I have no personal trauma and no “triggers” but this book has everything…..proceed with caution!!
My god. I am new to the horror genre and have read several categorized as such this year. But this book, THIS is horror. Truly. I finished this last week and can’t stop thinking about it. 
This tackles so much! The imagery is incredible, the gore is balanced, the story is so original, besides the obvious fantastical element it’s honestly quite logical, the writing is beautiful (beautifully gross, too) everything comes together perfectly at the end. 
Couldn’t give it anything but 5 stars. Just wow. I cringed so hard several times - readers on social media always rattle off books that messed them up or are insanely disturbing but this is the first one that checked those boxes for me! Wild wild wild. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Racism, Racial slurs, Blood, Child abuse, Mental illness, Death, Incest, Child death, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: War

kenzielireads's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Racism, Suicide, Child death, Rape, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, and Sexual assault

midnights's review against another edition

I really don’t even know if it’s possible for me to rate this. I spent this whole book feeling like I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Now that it’s over, I’m not even sure if I liked it. Just truly, truly grotesque and offensive to the senses. 

I did like the way it addresses the very real and extremely disturbing hero-like worship of serial killers that exists in our modern society in the wake of true crime’s rise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Body horror, Sexual assault, Ableism, Blood, Incest, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, and Violence

devin_raquel's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Ok, so this book is a lot. It definitely not as violent or gore-filled as some of the other novels I read, but the emotional aspect to this books was tough for me to get around. 

I was really enjoying Lori’s character, and even empathizing with her and her over the top true crime obsession. But when the horrors she committed were finally revealed, I felt sick to my stomach with the thought of supporting her. Some of her sins are easy to spot, but others are just as shocking as they are dark. 

As for the overall story and plot, I loved it. I thought that Triana did an absolutely stunning job on this book. The amount of detail that he gets in, in such a short book is truly incredible. They way he describes the setting, making sure to include all five senses, makes the reader feel as if their traveling up the river too. 

If you like horror novels, you’ll like this book. If you like psychological thrillers or true crime, you’ll like this book. Make sure you check the trigger warnings before reading though!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Eating disorder, Incest, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Death

maggotea's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

2.25

ableism abounds in this novel. the racism, murder, and sexual assault are all viewed as negative, but the ableism is meant to make us sympathize with our main character. not the case for me, i would not recommend this one and will not be reading it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Rape, Body horror, Torture, Violence, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Ableism, Death of parent, Death, Medical trauma, Racism, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Eating disorder, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship