Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Woom by Duncan Ralston

30 reviews

gmarie12's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Body horror, Torture, Blood, Abortion, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder, and Physical abuse

lauryn_amber26's review against another edition

dark sad 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Addiction, Rape, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Death, Blood, Sexual assault, Self harm, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Gore, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Abortion

caffeinated_or_chaos's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Drug abuse, Child death, Rape, Abortion, Torture, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Cursing, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Gore, Death of parent, Murder, and Fatphobia

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Disturbingly dark. Not at all what I expected — but heinous nonetheless. This nontraditional tale of horror will definitely fuck up your brain. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Fatphobia, Gore, Grief, Violence, Addiction, Infertility, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Abortion, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Vomit

cakeboxing's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

0.5

I don't want to go into too much detail so that I can leave this a spoiler free review. 

Be sure to check trigger warnings if you read this book. 

I bought and read this book on kindle immediately after watching a tiktok saying it was the most disturbing thing they had every read. While I don't think it's deserving of that title (at least for me), I can definitely agree that it's not your typical horror novel. 

The writing style was decent, though the author felt the need to explain everything to the reader, at least eventually. Because of this, I saw the ending coming from a mile off. That was surprising to me, since a lot of people had said they'd never read something so horrible and that the ending had left them in shock. 

I haven't read very many horror stories, and I've never read any body horror so this was my first. I would not say that I am particularly accustomed to scenes like these, I don't go out of my way to read about or watch bloody depictions of various violations to the human body. Maybe I'm just a millennial existing in a dystopian society called the US of A, where I've become desensitized to gore in mainstream media, politics, and everyday life. 

All that said, this book did literally nothing to really freak me out. (I really don't want to know what that says about me as a person.) Sure, there were definitely scenes that were grotesque, where the descriptions made me a little sick. To me, the majority of the disturbing scenes are in the first half of the book. At around a quarter through, I started to feel uncomfortable in my own apartment even when not reading, and I became scared for one of the characters - everything a person wants in a horror book. But those feelings quickly faded as the pacing changed and the plot became obvious and predictable. Since I saw the end coming, it wasn't very satisfying or unsettling. Someone who doesn't see the end coming, however, would likely find it to be incredibly shocking.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Gore, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

courtvsbooks's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

I don’t even know what to say about this book. Someone recommended it as a super disturbing book and I thought why not. Was it disturbing? Yes. Did it make me not want to read it? No. Honestly I’ve read worse, but I really enjoyed how the parallels came into fruition. Major trigger warnings though for anyone reading this.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

rachelreads2453's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is insane, in the best way. Brilliantly crafted. Deeply unsettling. Trigger warnings for.. pretty much everything.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Abortion, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Death, Body horror, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, and Drug use

beck111's review against another edition

challenging dark

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Infertility, Misogyny, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Child death, and Body horror

mirandawood's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

What. The. Fuck. Why did I want to read this again? It’s fucked up on sooo many levels which is the point, but I wanted it to be scary and creepy, instead it’s like pervert creepy. No bueno. The story of Mary was so hard to read, it made me feel physically sick. And I hated the ending. You’re telling me after everything Shyla just went through and listened to that she would feel compassion?! Ugh

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Body horror, Abortion, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

If you are bothered by any specific trigger, just skip this book, because there are so many

cherithburger's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Infertility, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence