Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Cabinet

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

ginbat's review

5.0

Maybe I’m being too generous with a 5/5, but even with the ending I’m just a sucker for a strange book, and this book was strange. Villa incognito vibes

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scifi_rat's review

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dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Plot: 3.75★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 4★/4.5★
Characters: 4★
Worldbuilding: 4★
Ending: 3.75★

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rossram1621's review

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funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A book about finding both hope in suffering, and misery in mundaety. I adored each of the files, each person with a creatively unique story that truly made me see the world a little bit differently.

The A storyline was a lot less interesting to me than the files themselves. It started strong, but lost some solidity toward the end.

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flamesocks's review

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funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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kinddog2073's review

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dark funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

2.5

A bizarre book to be sure. There is some interesting and at times poignant commentary about capitalism and alienation as others have noted. There are also some very funny and human moments. Despite that, I think this would have been better as a collection of short stories with the narrator's personality and life filled subtly through the telling of those. Instead, we get weird moments of plot that feel like distractions from the stories of the symptomers, which are so often funny or touching.

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jaimeeslitlife's review

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challenging dark 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

4.5

"There is no moral of the story - that's the moral of the story."

“These things are recorded simply because they just are. Not because they are magnificent or beautiful, but because they exist beside us.”

In THE CABINET, stories of symptomers (people who have biologically metamorphosed in surreal ways) are juxtaposed against the story of Kong Deok-geun, an office worker whose life is full of I-would-rather-eat-dog-treats-than-suffer-this-boredom boredom. Deok-geun is a passive, unenthusiastic narrator who seems to be swept along by his story instead of writing it himself. What starts as a boredom-fueled break-in to an exceedingly ordinary cabinet that holds the symptomers' files turns into a bizarre and potentially lethal ride from which Deok-geun makes no real attempt to escape. There was something so intensely human about the way Deok-geun ignored the absurdities happening in the world around him, pushing them away and minimizing them until they forced him to pay attention. Instead of putting off a dentist appointment, however, Deok-geun puts off thinking about the potential consequences of his interactions with the symptomers.

THE CABINET defies convention just as much as the symptomers do. It is darkly humorous and upbeat, but also disturbing on a visceral level. Dry humor and a touch of whimsy mingle with body horror and intense satire of capitalist office culture. Absurd science fiction vignettes meet the absurdity of reality. THE CABINET is a fascinatingly weird little book that deserves its own special place in the world of fiction.

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