Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

13 reviews

murder_unicorn's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Torture, Blood, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Cancer, Classism, Child death, Grief, Medical content, Cannibalism, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

Minor: Transphobia, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Vomit

lisettemarie's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Cancer, Child death, Cannibalism, Classism, Cursing, Death, and Murder

englethebert's review against another edition

dark tense

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

3.5

Plods along in the middle but starts and ends strong. Characters are despicable interesting in their actions and interactions with one another, but struggle with internal growth

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Child death, Medical trauma, Violence, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Death, Racism, Cursing, and Body horror

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Deportation, Classism, and Drug abuse

Minor: Infidelity and Addiction

kdwhite's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death, Child abuse, Gore, Violence, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Terminal illness, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Suicide attempt

ouijabroad's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

I slogged through this one. I feel like this happened for several reasons. The first one being that there’s sooooooooo much fluff before the “action” begins (I use action loosely and I’ll get to that). This book could have easily been a novella in my opinion and summed everything up much faster, however I still don’t think it would’ve been a worthy enough story to tell.

I knew going in that the characters weren’t likable and I’m fine with that. The thing is I didn’t care about them, the story they were telling or what happened to them. The beginning was sad and I had empathy for Mario’s financial struggles and how healthcare is a sick joke, but that’s about all I felt the entire book.

The messed up and sometimes (weirdly and randomly) even supernatural things that happened had no explanation and the violence was purely there to shock the reader. 

The author cannot write women, he is as bad as Stephen king. Any woman is just there to further plot and they're either reduced to their looks and bodies or viewed as a mother figure (or both like Stephanie!).  Also really loves telling us about fat folks because that totally adds to the story. And all the fat folks were objectively bad people. 

I didn’t dig his writing style; This author really likes to use similes at a distracting rate. 

Now, the “action” during the climax: it was such a dud. All this lead up and exposition with so many unexplained happenings, violence and then it’s just over. I can’t believe I spent so long trying to get through this one. I wish I had put this in the DNF pile.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Addiction, Cancer, Cannibalism, Classism, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

jillaay_h's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child death, Grief, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Drug abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts

ate_nina_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-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

3.75

This book is not for the faint of heart!! Graphic and gory and overall disturbing, this is not a light read. Nevertheless, it is beautifully written with both poetic prose and highly sympathetic insights into one grieving and deeply troubled man's psyche (a tall feat, considering the acts that this man commits throughout the book).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Hate crime, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, and War

nithya_natalya's review against another edition

dark 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

True to the descriptions, this book was genre-bending, and I loved that. It wasn’t a typical horror novel, but sort of naturally blended horror elements into hyper-gritty realism. None of the supernatural elements felt out of place. I thought that at times the points that the author made about racism were heavy handed. But maybe being heavy handed is a good thing. One star deducted for his depiction of women. I felt like most of the women were not multidimensional at all. I think that might have been part of the point. The character sort of mythologized the women in his life, rather than seeing them as real people. But sometimes it was hard to tell whether it was intentional or just the authors own biases leaking through? 

One note: there is a good amount of Spanish mixed into the novel, although it is mostly written in English. I would recommend not trying to translate those sections if you don’t understand them. Writing parts of conversations in Spanish was an artistic choice. Imo, non Spanish speakers are not meant to know what’s being said. That’s part of the experience of it. Spanish speakers will catch everything and non-Spanish speaker will miss things, feel lost, or not fully understand. And to me, that is part of the point of the artistic choice that was made. If not understanding what’s going on makes you feel uncomfortable, sit with that! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Torture, Child abuse, Body horror, Child death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Cannibalism

jennifer_bush_73's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Cancer, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Death of parent, Violence, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, and Suicidal thoughts

oro91's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.5

This book went in a direction I did not expect at all. Definitely violent but the story kept me hooked. I do with the translations we’re in foot notes as opposed to a separate book. Would be easier to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Racism, Violence, Cannibalism, Blood, Cancer, Body horror, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit