Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

34 reviews

woolfian's review against another edition

This was a book that popped up on my reading app and I figured “why not?” I went in knowing nothing beyond the description.

I stopped reading at about 60% at which point one of the characters graphically tortures and murders a kitten. I don’t mind reading difficult books about difficult people, but I don’t like reading books that have cruelty for the sake of cruelty with effectively zero character development, which is basically what this was. Even without this, I would have rated the book low for the following reasons.

There's a fine line between being descriptive enough to convey a rich mental image and being so packed with metaphor it becomes distracting. I found Cutter's writing to fall solidly in the latter camp. Every other sentence was a metaphor, and I’d be rich if I had a dollar every time he wrote something akin to "He saw a thing, which reminded him of this thing he saw as a boy" or "He saw a thing, which resembled this other thing that seems unrelated but really isn't.” We get it, Cutter likes description.

But description doesn’t really matter if it isn’t balanced by a strong storyline, which I just didn’t see here. A bunch of mad scientists use worms to create a weight loss medication and release a body-hijacking parasite onto an unsuspecting small town (sorry, remote island). It’s not even unique. It’s like Cutter heard the urban legends about people eating tapeworms to lose weight and was like “I can make a story around that.” And he did, but not a good one.

Throughout the book I kept fighting the feeling that this was basically just an attempt to be like Steven King, and that's probably not fair. But there were lots of similarities--body-hijacking parasites, the ragtag cast of teen characters with shitty parents throwing taunts and jabs, the overly descriptive tone, toeing the line of body horror.....it would be nice to see a book like this that was more stylistically removed from King.  

So in the end, I would have given this 1.5/5 stars because it lacked originality, had a weak story that that it tried to mask under an endless stream of heavy description and predictable teenage banter, and had almost farcical “scientific” interludes (as a scientist, these gave me a good chuckle, so I threw Cutter an extra 0.5 stars).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

_ash_mac's review against another edition

dark sad 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? No

4.75

Very immersive and hooked me in from page one (which I loved!) Kept me interested throughout and liked the ambiguity of the ending, my first and favourite of Cutter so far! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Body horror, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Child death, Gore, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

autumnrevisited's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This is one of the worst books I’ve ever read. Not because it was bad but because it was so gross and detailed in a way that is just viscerally unnerving. Impressive writing but fucking hell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Child death, Gore, Animal death, Excrement, Murder, Abandonment, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Blood, Death, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Police brutality, Suicide, Violence, Cursing, Medical trauma, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Torture and Sexual content

heartofhorrors's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, Suicide, Violence, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Minor: War, Gun violence, Alcohol, Child abuse, Fatphobia, and Sexual content

lexx_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

extreme body horror! Not for the faint of heart 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Self harm, Animal death, Child death, Excrement, Gore, Vomit, Body shaming, Murder, Blood, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, and Physical abuse

silverwings95's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Suicide, Body shaming, Bullying, Gore, Murder, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Confinement, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Cursing, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Excrement

that_cow_girl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.5

This book simultaneously disgusted me and broke my heart. It didn’t take long for things to start happening and then it just kept coming. This book literally wormed its way into my head and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It also referenced Anne of Green Gables twice which is my favorite book, and I thought it was hilarious that THIS was the book it was referenced in. I loved the characters of the Scouts. Each boy was so unique and fascinating. I DID have to skip the part about

Shelley killing his mom’s cat. I can handle a lot of gore and all that, but cats and dogs I can’t handle. I also sobbed my eyes out at the part with the turtle.

if you like nasty books, consider this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Medical trauma, Cursing, Fatphobia, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Torture, Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Gaslighting, Self harm, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Child death, Eating disorder, Confinement, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Abandonment, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

mm1216's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Violence, Child death, Animal death, Self harm, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Mental illness, and Cursing

Minor: Vomit, Child abuse, and Excrement

rainy_daze's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder, Blood, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Body horror, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, and Violence

aemowers's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Vomit, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual content, Alcohol, Cancer, Self harm, Suicide, Child death, and Death