Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

19 reviews

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

 Holy shit. Ever since I picked this book up I’ve been thinking about worms. I boarded a flight and as soon as my ears started to gum up my first thought was that it had to be worms. Worms that snuck in there and are curling up, just waiting to spread out and suck the nutrients from my body. Jesus just thinking about the plot of this book gives me goosebumps. Nick Cutter describes every in painstaking detail. This is both a pro and a con. On one hand, I'm completely immersed in the story and I appreciate his creative (and terrifying) analogies and on the other, I am increasingly disgusted with every flip of a page. Speaking of analogies his comparison of human bones jutting out under skin to a trombone in wrapping paper KILLED ME.

Cutter does such a great job characterizing the boys of Troop 52. They make mistakes, they're full of angst and curiosity. The relationships between the boys are complex and I absolutely loved the layers to this. In the first half of the book, I found all of them to be little shits. This continued until the end, but I also realized I was being unfair to these characters. And maybe it was the point to despise them all a little bit.

The structure of this story, traditional chapters intermingled with newspaper articles, interviews, research logs etc was unconventional and I enjoyed it so much. The story wouldn't be the same without it. I read the acknowledgments for once and turns out Cutter was inspired to do this by Stephen King's Carrie, so maybe that will be one of my next reads.

Songs:

• Sick of Being Young - Krooked Kings
• Christmas Kids - ROAR

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Abandonment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Medical content, Animal death, Body shaming, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Alcohol

Minor: Excrement and Fatphobia

jenc's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

This book loses like a quarter of a star because of the last chapter. It's probably 10 lines and right now I'm a little mad at it.
My roommate loves this book. He's very unsettled by it and I agree, v spoopy, v uncomfy, v no thank you. But...I just really need to read a horror book that commits to an ending. The last 3 have been all hand-wavy and I just want something else.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Child death, and Animal death

Moderate: Body shaming, Gaslighting, Bullying, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Cursing, and Fatphobia

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Vomit, Alcohol, and Excrement

mommarex1221's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Torture, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Abandonment, Excrement, Body shaming, Vomit, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

dark sad 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? No

3.0

Well that was certainly a trip. Fairly decent read, not my typical kind of horror, but not bad as a refresher between other subgenres. It's a pretty solid three for me personally, and I could see this potentially being pretty polarizing for people. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Grief, Self harm, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

Minor: Rape

sexualedward's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Self harm, Torture, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Toxic friendship, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Gun violence, Confinement, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Cursing, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Alcohol and Bullying

mostlyliterate's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.75

so so good!! this is going to be one of my go to horror recs 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Body shaming, Confinement, Medical content, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Cannibalism, Cursing, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, and Toxic friendship

olenam312's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

It was kind of a drag to get through this book, which is unfortunate bc this had a lot of horror tropes I personally enjoy. However, I found the ending to be pretty well done and probably the only reason I didn’t give this book a lower score.

My opinion of this book really went downhill once it was revealed that Shelley was a huge creep via details I wish I didn’t have to read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Sexual content, and Vomit

Minor: Alcohol, Cannibalism, and Homophobia

spoclc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Rare that a book can introduce 7 characters to me right off the bat and I can keep track of all of them. They each had such a unique perspective, informed by such different experiences and dynamics, that it was easy to tell them apart. This book was also just plain good. Horrifying. And good. Trigger warnings abounds.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Murder, Violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gore, Fatphobia, Death, Child death, Bullying, Body horror, Blood, and Body shaming

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Police brutality and Alcohol

ashleycmms's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Gore, and Confinement

Moderate: Bullying, Fatphobia, and Ableism

Minor: Alcohol