Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Dead Take the A Train by Richard Kadrey, Cassandra Khaw

14 reviews

thiscryptidreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

 📖 - 393 pages
Genre: occult horror 
POV: Single
Read via the Libby app

This was a vivid gory acid trip. Constantine meets American Gods vibes with a dash of Angels Wolf, Ram, and Hart. 

I loved the characters they all had so much depth you wanted to know more about them with each page turn, you're endeared and invested with Julie and her friends until the end and their mysterious, magical and macabre world.

 The book is a bit stuffy to read at times. Using some verbiage, I felt you might need a dictionary or Google search to make sure you were following along right. There were so many layers to the story, and each chapter Ping ponged you somewhere else so quickly it was occasionally hard to follow, so much so that the ending felt rushed and a bit cliffhangery. I was left needing more. (Hopefully a book 2 happens)

The slow burn added a nice tension that really drove the characters all the way to the end despite their being no actual romance most of the time. You want to cheer for them. 

Tyler can eat a bag of dicks. (No I won't explain further)
 You can find more of my reviews on all social platforms under the username ThisCryptidReads. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Body horror

Moderate: Death, Self harm, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Addiction, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Vomit

jessicafee86's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I heard someone describe Cassandra Khaw's writing as gorgeously, gooey horror and this book is a perfect example of that. This is the only book I've ever read that has felt weirdly hopeful even while I'm digging through endless piles of intestines and bowel for pages on end. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Blood, Torture, Cursing, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Grief

odunayo_y's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.75

Damn the horror tag was no joke lmao. This was gorier and more body horror than i was expecting. I loved it though(the edgelord in me will never die it seems).

The prose/writing was great! Unless when it wasn’t. I guess this is just what happens when two authors write a book. There were bits that felt disjointed and i felt didn’t really add anything to the overall story nor where they character building either. Also there was the occasional contradiction in characterisation. 
But all those i could forgive, what majorly tanked my enjoyment was the romance…it was written kinda badly these women were 30 yet they were acting all blushy and awkward like teens in a badly written fanfic 💀 and i really couldn’t buy that they were that totally 100% head over heels in love with each other. It would technically be instalove if not for the fact that Sarah and Julie had known each other for years prior to the story. I still ride hard for my sapphics and they were cute together but their romance could’ve been written better.

Now enough whinging! The magic oh the Magic it was glorious! Gross and Erdrich and beautiful. Julie was a fvck up but i felt for her like a drowned stinky rat, kinda gross but a little cute too. 

I’m still extremely pissed that Tyler didn’t die by the end what a weasly backstabbing bitch man. Imo he had more plot armour than the actual protagonist 😭. I know he’s obviously being set up as the main villain for the next book but damn hate him so much, especially for what what he did to my queens Annabeth & Clarice 😞 

Also loved the Barghest twins, big buff funky eldritch abomination werewolf-thing ladies mwah.

All in all pretty darn good book and highly recommend if you can tolerate the gore(it gets really nasty God damn) and won’t be bothered by jarring writing shifts. 

Bonus: No Sexual Assault! The worst in terms of sex stuff is a sleazy albeit consensual off page sexual encounter between two adults.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Death, Murder, Vomit, Self harm, Addiction, and Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Stalking, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Minor: Sexual content

pm_me_book_recs's review

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.5

 I really liked the conceit, but some of the writing took me out of the story. I don't know if it was one of the authors, or if it was supposed to be part of a character, but SOMEONE kept using super obscure words without any leads to their meanings. I'm the weird kid that read the thesaurus for fun, and there multiple times it was necessary for me to drop the book and research what the heck was trying to be conveyed. It also made the character feel very edgy in an already bluntly "I'm a badass GIRL who does inappropriate BOY stuff, like swear and do drugs. YEAH."

Anyways... aside from that, the story is a really cool concept! I enjoyed the urban aspect and the corporate greed analogy, the magic system, tying things together with deep seated trauma, the come-uppance, and the demons felt so creepy and insidious! I want to add that there is excessive substance abuse and alcoholism, which I did not mind because of the context with trauma and depression (been there), but some of the dialogue surrounding it was borderline edge-lordy...

Super LGBTQ friendly, surprisingly heartwarming in that department considering the horror/thriller focus. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Torture, Death, Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Drug abuse, Addiction, Blood, Medical content, Alcohol, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

beancape's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Blood, Self harm, Murder, Alcoholism, Death, and Drug abuse

Minor: Physical abuse

shorelinepages's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Addiction, Blood, Alcoholism, and Body horror

Moderate: Murder, Sexism, Medical content, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Vomit and Cannibalism

bethgold530's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

This is a solid mix of urban fantasy and cosmic horror. It was very enjoyable but also very weird, like next-level Lovecraft. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Mental illness, Drug use, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Self harm, Addiction, and Blood

archaicrobin's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-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

1.0

I am a huge fan of Khaw’s horror fiction, her prose is dynamic and visceral while still remaining beautiful at the same time. Nothing But Blackened Teeth is one of my favorite horror novellas of all time. 

I was expecting this dreadful type of horror when I started this audiobook and quickly realized this was not the haunting book I expected, but the genre of action/horror.  

 The narrator was over the top, with a different voice for each character which did help distinguish between the 50 different people in this book, but that did not make up for how annoying the voices could be. The narrator was over the top because the characters were edgy, hardcore, comic book characters that seemed more like caricatures than actual people by the end of the novel because the pacing is so off and there are so many of them. 

I’ll admit I’m a character reader, if I’m reading over the top horror I need to care about the characters in some way to find it interesting and I just could not relate or care about any of these characters because there were just too many of them. 

Essentially, this book had too many characters, too many pov switches, too many ideas, too many cliches, and too many plot points all thrown into one novel. It feels like you need to go into the story already knowing so much about this world and its characters which I don’t feel like we really get. Instead we get an other scene introducing ANOTHER new character in some edgy, gore filled way.  It’s just too much for me.

I will not be continuing this series because the books are not something that interests me. I continue to look forward to future work by Khaw but won’t be recommending this one. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Toxic relationship, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Death, Violence, Alcoholism, Body horror, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

makenziejh's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

2.75

I love the *concept* of this book,. It reminds me of a mix of Chainsaw Man and The Umbrella Academy, but I think you could tell that two authors wrote it and it felt a little disconnected. We follow the perspective of a few different characters, where the two main characters barely interact. They had dated in the past, which is revealed early in the story. Otherwise it feels like two separate stories.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gore, Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Suicide

Moderate: Self harm, Physical abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Cannibalism

existentialhell's review

dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

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

5.0

God this was fucking phenomenal. If you love raw, graphic horror with a whole lot of heart, I can't recommend it enough.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, Cannibalism, Body horror, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Self harm, Gun violence, Drug use, Addiction, Gore, Grief, Alcoholism, Classism, Blood, Alcohol, Violence, Vomit, Excrement, Stalking, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, and Cursing

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Sexual harassment and Sexual violence