Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt

41 reviews

vixenreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Unapologetically disgusting and unflinching in its commentary against the spread of transphobia, this novel is a riveting example of how pain and fear can disrupt the minds and growth of those unfortunate to be infected

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Be aware that this is frank depictions of parasitic infestations with human bodies, urine, water sports, scat-play, anal sex, cyberbullying, online harassment, bombing, terrorism, eating and inserting excrement, fisting, running away from home, homicide, and extreme TERF behaviour.

mxfahrenheit's review against another edition

challenging dark

• 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

4.25

Hoo boy this sure was a book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Xenophobia, Excrement, and Death of parent

gia0203's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

Rumfitt’s narrative voice is very clear and direct in this book - the purpose of the novel felt very clear compared to her last one. I very much enjoyed it, in a different way from Tell Me I’m Worthless.

The same themes pervade both books: being transgender in Britain, and how it links sexuality and trauma. Rumfitt writes about how it feels like we’re going backwards. She touches again and again on how extremist ideas spread. Interestingly in this novel, the internet is also a major theme, for example the fetish community. She pulls at the tension between fetish communities as a bit of fun, a sanctuary and as a coping mechanism.

This book is at times very satirical. I really enjoyed that. It isn’t scared to expose the underbelly of hypocrisy in modern politics. There’s a passage in this book that says everything is about sex, and people just like to pretend that it isn’t. This book is daring when Britain at the moment is leaning towards conservatism and tradition.

In this book, the worms are the metaphor for extremism, similar to the haunted house in Tell Me I’m Worthless. But Rumfitt’s books can’t really be defined as just one thing. She juggles many metaphorical plates at once.  I criticised Tell Me I’m Worthless for it’s lack of clarity, and I don’t hold the same criticism for this book. In many ways it’s a stronger novel. Rumfitt is growing really well as an author.

Subjectively however, I think the difference between them is that Tell Me I’m Worthless was more emotional, more zoomed in on the two people at the heart of it, whereas Brainwyrms takes a broader perspective. I prefer Tell Me  I’m Worthless on a personal level, but Brainwyrms is the better book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Minor: Ableism, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Infertility, Rape, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

Terrorism/Bombing

ahliahreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

5.0

Not for the faint of heart or easily squeamish. However if you're tough enough to handle the parasitic, subversive nature, this might be one of the most important stories of the year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Incest, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Excrement

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lovelylilelle's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

iheartm4m's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

danimacuk's review

challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.75

jesus fucking christ... gross.

two thumbs up

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

discarded_dust_jacket's review

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

First and foremost: this book is NOT for everyone (it’s probably not even for most, tbh).

It’s RIFE with graphic depictions of shockingly taboo sex (way worse than whatever you’re imagining right now). If that means I’ve already lost you? Totally understandable. Do not read this, lol.

BUT, I think pushing through the grossness of the book opens the door for some really important discussions about its themes. I mean, aside from being an extreme horror novel, it IS a timely political satire about transphobia in Britain. 

The main motif that I noticed again and again was the idea of bodies as “hosts” for something. One character has an impregnation kink and obsesses over the idea of hosting a fetus, another character is aroused by the idea of hosting a parasitic organism, and the villains of the story are people infected with extraterrestrial brain worms that are meant to symbolize (and also manifest in the story as) transphobia. 

The concepts of womanhood, motherhood and internet culture are also explored; and, to my great amusement, one of the villainous (and worm-riddled) characters is a not-so-subtle allusion to JK Rowling.

My only complaints are that a few chapters went a bit off the rails and became too abstract for my taste—some are written as this second person POV stream-of-consciousness that lacks about 70% of the necessary punctuation—and the r slur gets used in a way that I found gratuitous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Incest

Minor: Ableism, Deadnaming, Suicide, and Death of parent

ellisdex's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

jesus christ. i have brainwyrms brainworms

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infertility, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

sleaterkenneth's review against another edition

BOOT NASTY!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail