Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

9 reviews

shawn_martines's review against another edition

dark funny sad 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? Yes

2.75

This book is ahead of its time, but not for everyone: a story of self discovery written with LGBTQIA+ characters but full of Gay Wrongs instead of gay rights. This story is written in a way that the message could be championed by the wrong people and I could not get that out of my head. I appreciate the humour and the fast paced adventure, but this book quickly jumps into a statement that is drawn out long enough to fumble a safe landing. I left the story thinking, "what did I just read?" but not in an awestruck way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Ableism, Biphobia, Pedophilia, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Drug abuse, Car accident, Body horror, Grief, Sexual assault, Dysphoria, Drug use, Blood, Gore, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

rachellosacco's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious fast-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

What a great and crazy dive into ideas of beauty and hyper-femininity. There are plenty of twists, some you might be able to guess, others that are truly shocking. Consumerism and spectacle are criticized throughout, and the line begins to blur between hate and love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Outing, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Car accident, Deadnaming, Cursing, and Body shaming

Minor: Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Rape

grunbean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.25

Whenever I read a book by Chuck Palahniuk I can only describe my reaction with that one clip of Brian David Gilbert going ‘What the f***’?!’. For me this picked up over half way, but it’s not a bad read. Definitely interesting with plenty of surprises, which is what you’d expect! It just didn’t have its hook in me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gaslighting, Drug use, Dysphoria, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Outing, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Mental illness, Infidelity, Homophobia, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Addiction, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Drug abuse, Death, and Car accident

c_aitli_n's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

2.0

Very transphobic and edgelord ego stroking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Transphobia, Self harm, and Sexual violence

seethinglloron's review against another edition

dark funny fast-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

2.75

I love Chuck Palahniuk. I love his prose, his obsession with the filthy and the gory and the absolutely batshit insane. This is all of that wrapped up in a tale about femininity, beauty, desire, gender, sexuality; and unfortunately, it did not land for me. I was with Chuck for much of the novel. Chuck lost me at the end.
I am willing to acquiesce a lot to the theming, the unreliable and unlikeable narrator, the terrible characters and their terrible ideas and their terrible lives. I do it all the time! This just crosses that fine line of absurdity into nonsense. If this novel was a work of art like some of Palahniuk's other work, perhaps I could look past the absolute gall of Palahniuk to write about trans women the way he does. Yes, it's transgressive. Yes, it's not really about trans women, but about something else. No, it doesn't save this train wreck.
Some of it is very fun in the fucked-up way Palahniuk's bullshit is fun, but not enough of it, and not for long enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Deadnaming

jeremie's review against another edition

dark funny 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

4.75

This and “Fight Club” should be talked about in the same breath.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Drug abuse, Medical content, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Sexual content, Dysphoria, Addiction, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Homophobia, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Incest and Eating disorder

spookyspice's review

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.5

I know people think Guts from Haunted is the most messed up thing Palahniuk has written but from what I’ve read of his work this is actually the most disturbing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Violence, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Self harm, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Car accident, Death, and Grief

genericvampire's review

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This is what My Year of Rest and Relaxation wishes it could be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Car accident, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, and Violence

cubistvowels's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence