Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

19 reviews

alex_s99's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Pregnancy, Slavery, Torture, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Alcoholism, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Infertility, and Miscarriage

svincent2210's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

graphic, not for the faint of heart but a great critique

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, Trafficking, Incest, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Alcohol, Infidelity, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Torture, Terminal illness, Stalking, Slavery, Sexual violence, Child death, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Medical content, Infertility, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Confinement, Classism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Vomit, Violence, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

olliemae04's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I would love the rate this a 5 but for the main reason being that

they shouldn’t have fucked with the puppies YOU MONSTERS

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Addiction, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Infertility, Medical content, Pedophilia, and Alcoholism

Get ready for nightmares.

jesika's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

jordanleigh321's review

challenging dark tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Infertility, Body horror, Hate crime, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Animal death, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Death of parent, Gore, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, and Murder

rkorevenge's review

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This made me queasy and the ending is horrific. Not for the faint of heart. Seriously, check trigger warnings. This was the most vicious storytelling I’ve ever encountered and it just doesn’t stop. It’s just absolutely brutal from the first page to the last. The ending literally made me throw the book across the room in anger. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to a book. It’s a good book but I will never read it again. I don’t have to read it again honestly because the last line will haunt me for the rest of my life. This is a truly horrific imaging of atrocities that our infrastructures, languages, cultures, and governments are capable of implementing and justifying- and how quickly we would allow it to happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Infertility, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Classism, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and War

biab00's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

"The mask of apparent calm, of mundane tranquility, of the joy, at once small and bright, of not knowing this thing I call skin will be ripped off, when this thing I call mouth will lose the flesh that surrounds it, when these things I call eyes will come upon the black silence of the knife."

This book is disturbing and there's a lot of gore (check the trigger warnings) so beware when you go and read it.
For me it was definitely a page-turner, I always wanted to know what was going to happen next and find out more about this world.
The ending was something that I wasn't expecting but it made sense in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Gore, Murder, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Torture, Child death, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Dementia

Minor: Alcohol and Alcoholism

fayfaybleugh's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

review unfinished: This is the most horrifying book I’ve ever read- I cannot rate it because its content and delivery cannot possibly be “good”, but it remains thought provoking and is truly a horror if an unconventional one. Despite being a page turner that I finished quite quickly I had to take many pauses and many times thought I would put it down and not pick it up again. The content warnings on this one are a mile long and they just get worse and worse as the book goes on.

The novel follows Marcos who works as the right hand man of a “special meat” processing llant in a dystopian future (or alternate reality) where a virus that kills humans has contaminated all animals causing all slaughterhouses to be shut down, all pets and animals that interact with humans euthanized. In what is called the Transition, the loss of the meat industry is replaced with humans. The references to factory farming are heavy-handed and obvious from the way that “special meat” and “specimens” are talked and labeled for consumption:

feet sold as “hind trotters”, not regular kidneys but “special kidneys”

, etc. There are references that it is illegal to outright discuss the consumption of humans or cannibalism, and that specific language must be used (“head” instead of people, “carcass” instead of corpse), but over the course of the book it becomes apparent that people are well aware what they are taking part in, particularly when Marcos visits the game reserve.

Throughout, other characters are insistent that “head” are not people or human- it is meat and nothing else- and is furthermore seen as a status symbol as evidenced from the description of scavengers who exist as a starving underclass at the edges of the story who tear apart corpses unfit for production outside the slaughterhouse fences. Despite the clear line that humanity has drawn to distinguish “people” from “meat”, instances of people being very aware of consuming humans are made from the celebrity hunted down at the game reserve whose parts are eaten in celebration because it had a name, the practice of keeping live head in your own house to butcher piece by piece so it is fresh, etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Excrement, Infertility, and Medical content

annabel_blakey's review

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking