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goldencinder's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book will NOT be for everyone, not even everyone in the market for grotesque horror or edgy material. I believe I appreciated it because I had to remind myself multiple times that it was just a fiction novel and I was experiencing the author’s very disturbing mind. I appreciated the ride I guess.
While I saw a commentary amongst all the muck, torture, and perversion, I cannot be for certain that there was any deeper meaning to this story than Stokoe just writing shocking shit for the fun of it.
I haven’t fully formed my interpretations into a fully fleshed out thought yet. I feel like a lot of the content was a criticism or comment on a similar aspect of reality. For instance, the egregious amount of fat phobia. The mother’s body was consistently described in ways to make you feel icky and dirty only by overemphasizing her fat, folds, and weight. However, it was so over the top, I began to feel like it was just referencing the already pervasive fat phobia that exists and turning it up to 11. Of course I could be reading into it too much and Matthew Stokoe is actually just fat phobic.
I will say, though I did enjoy the book, I could have definitely gone through it without the abhorrent torture and mutilation of the cows. I also did not care for the cow’s dialogue. The ending also left me wanting, but it could be because I didn’t understand what it was meant to symbolize.
I’ve read some great criticisms of this book here and I agree with all of them, whether they hated it or loved it. This book causes some very visceral reactions.
Graphic: Child death, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Suicide, Vomit, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Sexual assault, and Torture
Be warned!! This book is not for the sensitive stomach. While e this book gets very graphic and has a plethora of horrendous content, there is a larger commentary behind it all and it is very well crafted.pantrat's review
- 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
1.5
Graphic: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Murder, Physical abuse, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexism, Vomit, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gore, Medical content, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, and Rape
sommarborne's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
However, this book is oddly captivating and reads like a deeply disturbing urban fairy tale. The second half of the book reminded me a lot of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It is better to go into this story expecting it to read like a fairy tale & to not take the story to be “realistic” in any sense of the word.
All of the characters except for Steven (the main character) are obnoxious over the top depictions of various levels of evil or hopelessness. The dialogue, in my opinion, is the worst part of the book. It is annoying to read and never gets better.
The author really spoon feeds you way too much. He doesn’t seem to trust the art of subtle storytelling or showing rather than telling. The dialogue is more fitting of a child’s story where you have to make it clear who the “bad guy” is.
It does come across like the author or, at the very least, the main character does not like women whatsoever or anything with a vagina. There is a good deal of vaginal mutilation in this book & a focus on using that as a form of reaffirming Steven’s sense of masculinity. I do think that was the point but I also feel like the author did not convey this particularly well and it made me roll my eyes several times.
I do not usually comment on the physical descriptors of characters too often, but I have to admit that the book is actually super fatphobic and I mean that for real. Steven’s mother is obese and every scene with her makes a point to mention her fatness in revolting ways meant to emphasize her “evilness” essentially. Like I said, the characters are cartoonishly bad.
There is also a super random use of the n-word for absolutely no reason and I mean NO reason. It was so out of left field I had to reread it ten times over because I kept trying to understand where it came from. The book has nothing to do with racism whatsoever & it is one of the cows that randomly says it? It is toward middleish of the book.
The violence is a bit obnoxious and it reminds me of try hards doing their best to use shock and disgust rather than writing better, but the writing itself actually is good beyond that and the development of Steven’s character arc is surprisingly well done. This might seem wild to admit given the context of this book, but Steven is a weirdly relatable main character and I have to give props to the author for that.
He isn’t relatable in the sense of the extreme and violent choices he makes, but rather he is a well done metaphor of the desire to find a community & a purpose in life when you constantly feel detatched from everything and everyone. For me, the ending of the book was incredibly satisfying and made plenty of sense. It was bittersweet in a super fucked up way.
If you can stomach it, I do think it is worth a read. It isn’t often we have these contemporary fairy tales but it really did remind me of the over the top and bizarre gore you would read in the original Grimms fairy tales & similar stories.
I found the animal violence to be fairly easy to skim without missing tangible points. While the scenes are undeniably upsetting and graphic, I will say that the violence against people in the book are definitely more graphic which I did kinda appreciate.
This is a wild read and I think the beginning and dialogue are the weakest points. This is gonna sound insane but trust me: when the cows start to talk is when the book gets more tolerable. I think a lot of interesting essays could be written about this.
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Animal death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Misogyny, Abortion, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Sexism
Minor: Abortion and Racial slurs
dreamyari's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
i’m not even kidding, this and dead inside have the exact same problem of being so formulaic where every chapter is the repeat of the previous one with like. a sentence of a difference. extreme horror is great but only when done with an iota of something that isn’t just ~oooo disgusting description that will make the reader gag~. it sure will!! but what’s the point if that’s all there is? WHY did so many influencers recommend this lmao
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Torture, Racial slurs, Sexism, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Mental illness, Child death, Rape, Islamophobia, Death, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Animal death, and Excrement
katenorman17's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Excrement, Islamophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Vomit, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Murder, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse