Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

11 reviews

fireballme's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Rape, Vomit, Alcohol, Addiction, Death, Mental illness, Body horror, Cursing, Gun violence, Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

numbat's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

1.0

It was a bit much. Very graphic, rambling and incoherent but hen again I guess that is the point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Abortion, Gore, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Drug use, and Addiction

crufts's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

Disclaimer: I only read the first 30%. After that, I got the gist and didn't feel the need to read the rest. There's no plot, so it doesn't really matter if you miss some chapters or read it out of order.

After hearing the title mentioned several times over the years, I became curious about Naked Lunch and decided to read it.

In poetic, lyrical, psychedelic language, the author paints a picture of an America addled by junk - that is, opioid drugs in all their forms. Plagued by addicts of every substance under the sun, the society he depicts is in a state of complete moral and physical degradation.

Other words I would use to describe this book: deranged, delirious, fevered, stream of consciousness, extremely offensive, nonsensical, bizarre, and over the top. Don't go into this book expecting a plot, consistent characters, or any shred of common sense. It's not a story at all, it's more like a really long slam poem.

Overall, I found the book more historically interesting than anything else - i.e., what on earth did Burroughs write that caused such a stir at the time? It was interesting to see the author railing against capital punishment, and also how he considered addicts to be sick people suffering an illness rather than being morally bankrupt (which was the dominant opinion at the time).

I am unable to choose a star rating due to how obscenely obscene the book is. However, you may find it interesting to check the book if you're hunting for inspiration to write an insane or delirious character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Cannibalism, Homophobia, Addiction, Blood, Lesbophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Self harm, and Vomit

Minor: Transphobia

Please seriously consider the content warnings in this and other reviews. The author wrote the book intending to bring light to the "naked" reality of drug addiction and moral decay that he observed and experienced.
However, I will note that there are hardly any named or recurring characters, and there's a certain fever-dream-like quality to the writing style. As a result, many of these scenes come off as more bizarre than distressing.

Again, please be warned, the book basically consists of one gross and deranged scene after another.

jblago's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

A book to more absorbed than read. When I started I was understandably challenged just comprehending each sentence as I read it, sometimes rereading the same paragraph multiple times simply to understand the words themselves let alone any semblance of deeper meaning or overall plot. But as I read more I became more comfortable with the style of this book. A literal Diary of a Madman. Junk-sick and mostly disgusting, yet proud and satirical on a level I have yet to see in any other book, film, or other art piece. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Trafficking, Suicide, Abandonment, Abortion, Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Violence, and Transphobia

Minor: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Murder, Islamophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

The satirical nature of the book makes it HEAVY with content warnings, but within context everything has its purpose. Each word serves its raison d’etre perfectly, in spite of its outward appearance.

moranguinhos's review against another edition

challenging dark funny fast-paced

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

4.0

even in the annotated version there were so many words i had to google. half were drugs & the other half were sex acts. wild vacation read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Torture, Child abuse, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Excrement, Death, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Vomit, Antisemitism, Body horror, Racism, Violence, Drug abuse, Incest, Murder, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and Rape

madisontoth's review against another edition

challenging funny slow-paced

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

5.0

i think this book changed my life. i’ve never read anything like this before in my life and it was so fucking fun!! i’m in love with burroughs’ writing style and every single other book i’ve read after this has just fallen flat. there’s literally nothing like this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Medical content, Addiction, Medical trauma, Rape, and Body horror

mirandacactusreads's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Excrement, Sexual content, Addiction, and Body horror

lain_darko's review against another edition

challenging dark funny slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Violence, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical content, Homophobia, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Drug use, Drug abuse, Cursing, Body horror, Antisemitism, and Addiction

emcee_othello's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense 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

I don’t think William S. Burroughs meant for anyone to understand Naked Lunch. I doubt even he completely understood what he’d made, especially if we’re to trust his assertion that he wrote most of it while strung out on heroin. But even after he’d sobered up and began editing, I think Burroughs recognized the hallucinogenic potency of his words and decided that the toxic prose contained in Naked Lunch was the only true and unabridged way to represent the life of a junkie.

Burroughs insisted that drug addiction was a disease—a “junk virus” that threatened humanity as much as any other deadly ailment. But he also recognized that heroin abuse could only be promulgated in a capitalist system. Drugs are the perfect commodity. They sate a primal appetite for pleasure, turn ordinary people into lifelong customers, and most importantly transform a curious mind into one wholly dependent on product. Addicts move at the whims of pushers—desperate to feed a fix, made to wait for hours or days, and always in the losing position in a bargain. It could be an allegory for consumerism if opioid abuse wasn’t still an epidemic today.

If Naked Lunch is about anything, it’s about the miserable life of an addict. The paranoia, the sickness, the lethargy of being hooked on heroin. But it’s also about the world that addiction creates—the “perfect capitalism” of the drug market. Naked Lunch is as much about sickness as it is about how drug pushers both illegal and corporate exploit and experiment on people. Burroughs insinuates that the pusher, the pharmacist, the CIA are all just as addicted to power and control as their customers are to their product. See the junkies go ape as they tear each other apart and hang themselves for sex. See the scientist observing from a window, hands soaked in blood, shaking his head in disappointment. See it here, then look around you; you might be eating at the same lunch, too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Violence

It’s some crazy stuff! Very obscene.

lagoonablu3's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Body horror