Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Red X by David Demchuk

7 reviews

crushedvelvet's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Part confessional & part ghost story, Red X is gruesome, haunting, & emotional. It follows a variety of gay men over a span of decades as they fall victim to a folkloric monster. A bit like an interconnected anthology, we get to know each man before tragedy strikes. Acquaintances & friends left picking up the pieces. Demchuk himself weaves in and out of the narrative as both a character & the author. Reflecting on the relationships between queerness, horror, & fear. The creature at work serves as a conduit through which he channels these fears. Of disease, of loneliness, of violence. All in all the book is poignant & raw.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Homophobia, Blood, Hate crime, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal death, Addiction, Cancer, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual violence

Occasional "white author writing character of color" cringe moments

markedwithanm's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Murder, Terminal illness, and Animal cruelty

kshertz's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This book is very highly regarded so I think it might be one that’s above my head. It had so many different characters and storylines and they converge. I’m not sure if it’s horror mixed with sci fi or about the aids crisis or all a metaphor? It was lost on me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Stalking, Body horror, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Violence, and Torture

aahona's review

challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Sexual violence, Murder, Homophobia, and Hate crime

kyletells's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This is the perfect book of hauntings. It's devastating and perfectly devastating. Centered around queer communities and the AIDS crisis in Toronto across multiple timelines, Demchuk somehow weaves every type of haunting in one novel. Time slips by, and it feels real (new relationships; changing city landscapes; deaths—everything moves by with so little comment but with major impact); meanwhile, people slip into the maws of a monster. Every man who goes missing in this book is deeply characterized in the smallest amount of space. That's not a spoiler—you're informed in chapter 1 that a man goes missing. And while the monster is horrifying, what's really scary is forgetting these incredibly depicted people you knew so well because there's another very deep character, another year, and another man missing within a few chapters. This book has a large cast but with very identifiable, rich characters. The language is perfect, the pacing amazing, the dialogue and commentary sometimes so biting I cackled, and while it's a hard-to-stomach read at times, it's a novel I'll likely re-read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Rape, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Murder, Homophobia, Hate crime, and Suicide attempt

The graphic horror is shown mostly after the event or described at a time after it occurs, though it is still graphic. Example: police violence is not depicted in the scene but by the police cleanup, which still is quite graphic through suggestion.

deandra_lalonde's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

thaatswhatsheread's review

dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Homophobia