Reviews tagging 'Torture'

We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

27 reviews

trippalli's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It's a challenging book full of awful things happening on the Internet and the witness stress of those paid to review flagged posts and the hardships of that job, their coping.... Their fallout of beliefs from flat Earth to denying the Holocaust, the tiers of what most need taken down and what isn't is hard, the hopefully things they see, some described, is really hard to hear. Especially a young girl cutting her face before killing herself.. And how they take the cutting post down and find out about her suicide later because they can't stop thinking about the girl and remember her real name and investigate. Along in the story is the narrator trying to have a relationship with her girlfriend that goes through it's own hardships in parallel to the harshness of this job both women and their friends work at.


It's well written but full of so many trigger flags, most of not all of them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Antisemitism, Biphobia, Child death, Mental illness, Self harm, Body shaming, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Suicide

breanneporter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

A very short, strange book. It’s told from the perspective of a late-twenties lesbian working as a content moderator for an unnamed media conglomerate (such as Meta), and mostly details the rise and fall of her relationship with one of her coworkers. I liked the premise and the writing style (second person - the whole book is written as a response to the lawyer representing her former coworkers in a suit against the company for hazardous working conditions) quite a lot, and was riveted / quick to finish after I had started it. But the open ending…. So abrupt and so strange. I don’t hate it (

I do love an unreliable narrator and this is one of the most extreme examples I’ve read of revealing the unreliability of the narrator, who may have SA-ed her ex gf??  

) but I don’t love it either. I have a lot of questions. I think this idea could have been fleshed out into a longer novel. I’m not sure I would recommend due to the trigger warnings and unsatisfying ending, but I’m glad I read it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Torture, Sexual assault, Violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Animal death, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Gore, Grief, Racism, Sexual content, and Suicide

frivilous's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Racial slurs, Torture, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, and Sexual content

josiee's review against another edition

challenging dark informative fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Vomit, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Excrement, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Suicide, Torture, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Drug use, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Addiction, Car accident, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Outing, Rape, Sexism, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Trafficking, Transphobia, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Dysphoria, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Suicide attempt

keirahelena_'s review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Torture, Self harm, Gore, Sexual violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Religious bigotry

imaginesysiphus'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Better than I expected. A short punchy read, even if less about content moderation ans more about the effects of it on people. Super dark and interesting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Homophobia, Murder, Violence, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Self harm

nitroglycerin's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Racial slurs, Genocide, Violence, Racism, and Vomit

Minor: Eating disorder, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Blood, Animal death, Suicide, and Stalking

arianedorlas's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Torture, Suicide, Self harm, Mental illness, and Violence

rionstorm's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Definitely check the trigger warnings for this one. Parts of it are predictably difficult to read, especially some of the descriptions of gore (although they are brief). 

The most interesting part of this book to me is the insight it gives into how content moderation affects the people who do it - both in terms of the impact on their mental health, and in terms of some of the material they are viewing 

having the intended radicalizing or desensitizing effect, even if they're not someone who is coming across the material organically.

I thought it was also quite interesting to see how the material being viewed affected each person,

for example how the others' antisemetic radicalization was incomprehensible to Kayleigh, even as she was herself being desensitized to sexual violence to the point of possibly re-enacting it, seemingly without any self awareness.

If you're interested in the consequences of the growing volume and consumption of difficult material on the internet, online radicalization, or the way trauma is increasingly built into the experience of someone who uses the internet, you might like this book. Be warned though, it's pretty grim the whole way through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Child death, Death, Animal death, Antisemitism, Genocide, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Stalking, Islamophobia, and Bullying

scheller_bg31's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Child abuse, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Eating disorder, Excrement, Homophobia, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Drug abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, and Violence