Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

157 reviews

evaaaarrrgghhh's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Loved - but hated the ending even though I KNOW IT WAS A HAPPY ENDING. Like, the absolutely beautiful breakdown of patriarchal hierarchies becoming 'default' even when consciously fought against. This story felt so deeply painful for me - the horror is that even when we fight it, the heteronormative patriarchal dynamic will settle over us like a blanket and suffocate us and we will have nobody to blame but ourselves for becoming tired of fighting (I'll cry Y WE GOTTA JUST KEEP FIGHTING ALL THE TIME AND THE MOMENT WE R TIRED IT ALL HAPPENS ANYWAY UGHHHHHHH)

 

Like fr just eat the man and the child I've had ENOUGH why is the happy ending that she just had to ask for help and he was fine with helping I HATE IT HERE EAT HIM EAT THEM ALL

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gaslighting, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Gore

the_fret_bandit's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

The addition of Africa by Toto was not something I expected to read in any book but it was deeply appreciated. This book has given me a lot to think about and I'm still not sure if recommending it to a friend may cause the implosion of her marriage during the first half.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Gore

rlfrick's review

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Animal death

rachjy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Gore

rinakei's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

2.75

Narratively this book feels slow, but the events move faster than they are told. A lot of the "slowness" comes from the third-person stream of consciousness experienced by the main character, the mother/Nightbitch, as well as depictions of the more mundane/typical/repetitive parts of motherhood. The plot is also interspersed with excerpts from a fictional book in the the novel that contribute to the worldbuilding and the main character's perception of herself. None of these are inherently bad qualities of the writing, and actually helped develop my belief in the magical realism that is used as the main device of exploring the book's themes.

The premise of exploring motherhood, womanhood, and various forms of violence and emotional turmoil against women in terms of magical realism and shapeshifting is extremely creative and compelling up until a particularly graphic and violent scene that occurs at the end of Part 2 and through the beginning of Part 3 that I summarize briefly in the Content Warning section of this review. 

After that first scene, I continued to read the novel because I wanted to see how everything would eventually turn out. However, in the middle of Part 3 and to the end of the novel, there is a similar scene described (I also summarize this briefly in the other part of this review). Both of these plot events irreversibly broke my immersion and belief in the overarching themes of this book, which could have been illustrated without the use of this graphic violence. It is with these events, and other adjacent, smaller and similar occurrences, where the length of this book could have been trimmed, which might have helped with some of the pacing described above, rather than, say, eliminating the mother's/Nightbitch's inner monologue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Animal death, and Violence

Throughout the book, there are multiple instances of graphic violence against small animals (cats, birds, and bunnies, mainly). In particular, at the end of Part 2 and into Part 3, a graphic scene involving (cw: animal cruelty/death)

the mother killing the family cat

and its aftermath are described. I'm not sure that this was a necessary portion to illustrate the theme/purpose of this book. Similarly towards the end of Part 3, when (plot spoiler)

the mother/Nightbitch debuts her show

, it's slowly revealed that the show includes (cw: animal cruelty/death)

the onstage, live slaughter of a bunny by Nightbitch in her "dog" form

. The external actualization of the mother's emotions in this way is incredibly compelling, but even for a fictional work of "art" (in quotes because while I appreciate experimental art, I don't think it needs to include live violence) within a fictional book, it felt more like a gratuitous show of violence than a device to hammer the main themes of the book home.

grunbean's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a weird book, and I really enjoyed it. I did have to pause to process a particularly traumatic scene, but I wouldn’t say it was an unnecessary scene. It is dark, primal, and a strange insight into the role of women, female rage, and the power to overcome what is expected of us. I would say this is a feminist book, but it’s a feminist take you have not read before.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Dysphoria, Animal death, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Animal cruelty, Gore, and Mental illness

avokaitotoast's review

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Formatting things: Dialogue is intentionally not in quotation marks or distinguished from the rest of the writing. It takes some getting used to but it’s a little off putting at first.

Animal Cruelty/Abuse Spoilers: page number and a tldr so you could skip if you want

• pg. 48, 90, 116, 149, 235: minor warning, non graphic
• pg. 152: graphic,
  describes killing a cat in detail including talk about seeing its intestines

TLDR Review:

• not just for mothers or aspiring mothers 
• loss of identity after a big life change
• anger at the expectations of women
• weird, but excellent

Full Review:

There is something in Nightbitch for every woman. Nightbitch is definitely about motherhood, but it’s also about womanhood and aging, it’s about female rage and the internal fight of societal expectations to do “what you should” and to do it with a smile, to put yourself second to others, to be domesticated and docile, about not wanting to be the „perfect“ woman — the „perfect“ mother, but being painfully aware that you’re not the perfect woman at the same time. It’s about shame and resentment and loss of identity during a life transition. You do not have to be a mother, or an aspiring mother to really feel this book.

It’s over the top, it’s absurd, it’s dark, it’s funny, it’s emotional. 

I‘ve seen some reviews say that the prose feels like it’s trying to be to serious. So stop taking it seriously. That’s what I have to say about that. Embrace the absurdity and the over the top-ness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Gore, Mental illness, and Misogyny

ashleygreene03's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

0.75

When I read that this wasn’t meant to be a full sized novel, it made perfect sense and sums up my issues with this book. She went on and on about her issues with motherhood and I kept thinking “yes this is why no one is having kids anymore” and it was frustrating how she never accepted help. I don’t understand how her husband showed her his weird porn stash and she said to herself “this is a man to marry and procreate with.” Then again, I didn’t get too far before I DNFd, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about 🥸

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism and Toxic relationship

refrejarator's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Horrific and feral. Absolutely loved it. Felt like a book ripped straight from my performance art classes in uni - and even referenced artists I studied! Feminist, artsy, and anti-MLM.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Death, Vomit, Animal death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Pregnancy, Violence, Misogyny, and Sexism

sophiejts's review

dark funny mysterious medium-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

3.5

i really enjoyed this book, but somehow it fell slightly flat toward the last third for me.

there is also pretty graphic animal death/abuse of a pet - i understand why it was included but it just was personally hard to stomach.

a well-written book for the unsettling girlies, but not my absolute favorite of this genre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Gore