Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

89 reviews

hippieonsteroids's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This novel is very much a fictional story based off the life of Jeffrey Dahmer. The author includes an excerpt from Jeffrey Dahmers trial, giving the readers an automatic insight on what this book will be delivering. The story is extremely dark, the chapters each being from a different characters perspective was an interesting tactic for this author to use. The characters all meet at some point so their stories overlap but the author does this by switching midway from third to first person. But it would always be third person from Jay to Andrew Compton. Who because of this the reader would know that Andrew Compton was the main character. The book didn’t do this immediately, it did this when Andrew crossed paths with Jay and Luke, but oddly enough not Tran. This book was challenging in content wise not reading difficulty. Towards the end you get one last chapter in Tran’s third person perspective and it is painful. What this book does is exemplify how homophobia and racism was a major factor in why Jeffrey Dahmer got away with his murders for a number of years. This novel very much resembles Jeffrey Dahmer and his possible perspectives while also providing the perspective of the victims and the victims loved ones.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Body horror, Cannibalism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Violence, Murder, Death, Drug abuse, Torture, Grief, Blood, Chronic illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Vomit

hoarding_wyrm's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Rape, Cannibalism, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Body horror, Sexual content, Addiction, Violence, Vomit, and Murder

animarret2boog's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Gore, Violence, Sexual violence, Torture, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Addiction, and Vomit

Minor: Incest

eris_in_chains's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Thoroughly enjoyed this book though I must say that it's very much a product of its time (cannot tell whether the author intented to fetishize East Asian men here.) An interesting Jeffrey Dahmer fanfic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Terminal illness, Body horror, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Death, and Rape

Moderate: Police brutality, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Blood, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Physical abuse

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

4.5

This is one of the "oldest" horror books that I have read on my journey so far and it did not disappoint! I could have gone for even more gore, personally, but I did really enjoy the intense emotional stories of the characters Tran and Luke. The inclusion of the AIDS epidemic and the societal commentary was a pleasant surprise amongst my expectation of a gory horror novel. This was just overall a pretty great, quick read and a must for horror fans. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Body horror, Murder, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Death, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, Drug use, Sexual violence, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Classism, Animal cruelty, Addiction, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Incest and Stalking

everyotherpageorso's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

I don’t know how I can give this a star rating.
Well written but it’s a book you endure rather than enjoy, which I guess is the point.

Allusion to Konerak Sinthasomphone at the end was really heartbreaking. If you aren’t familiar with the case, Konerak was 14 years old when he escaped Jeffrey Dahmer after being attacked, and police were alerted of an injured and naked boy in the area. Dahmer showed up, said they were lovers, and the police allowed Dahmer to take the boy back to his, where he killed him, despite the protestations of many African-American bystanders.
In the novel’s very clear reference to this incident, it is Jay who is allowed to leave with the injured and naked Tran, despite the protestations of an unnamed black musician, who is ignored and berated with slurs.
  While I understand the objective of putting a real life example of police incompetence (especially when it pertains to marginalized victims) in the novel, I still think it’s  disrespectful to the victim’s memory, as it seemed to me that it was not so much a reference or allusion as it was a line-by-line fictionalization of a real murder, eroticized through the perspective of his murderers. Yes, we do get Tran’s perspective during this as well, but I don’t think this offsets the disrespect of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Homophobia, Torture, Addiction, Cannibalism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, and Drug abuse

jully_bean's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Racial slurs, Violence, Rape, Suicide, Sexual content, Body horror, Dysphoria, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pedophilia, Murder, Excrement, Addiction, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Police brutality, and Terminal illness

bespokecompost's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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

3.0

I don’t think anyone needed to write jeffrey dahmer fanfiction but at least it’s written well. Answering the are these characters loveable question made me laugh out loud tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Torture, Chronic illness, Addiction, Cannibalism, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Sexual violence, Drug use, Gore, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Incest

moosereads1's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

A story that truly disturbs me and makes me shudder is a rare find, and exquisite corpses did just that. If you want a book that will traumatize you, this is the one. It takes you into the minds of two serial killers who, when combined, come together in a near picture perfect image of Jeffrey Dahmer and it is as utterly horrifying and disturbing as such a story should be. There were moments in which I had no words, just shock - however, in a good way rather than how many extreme horror books sacrifice good writing for shock value. Brite’s writing managed to make even the most disturbing scenes sound eloquent. However, the one issue I had was the synopsis compared to the content - it advertises that the two killers spend their time with the perfect victim, yet there are only a few scenes at the very end of the book in which they do so. Regardless, this was a great disturbing book and I’m going to find something light hearted to feel better about myself and my mental state after choosing this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Blood, Drug abuse, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, and Rape

katelynalice's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Murder, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Addiction, Classism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Incest and Stalking