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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I knew I was in for something disgusting but I didn't know how bad it was actually going to be. I wanted gross and I sure as heck got it. Sad, tragic, and disgusting but I enjoyed every word.
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There’s no words for this book.i dont know if i liked it or if every word made me sick. The story of Luke and Tran is tragic, and the centering of young gay men in the deepest pits of the AIDS epidemic is captivating and crushing all at once. In another world where this book was just about that maybe I would have loved it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
brite is now a transgender ftm author so in this review i will be referring to him accurately.
for anyone familiar with the cases, when reading ‘exquisite corpse’ it will become clear to you that both k!llers in this book are based off of jeffrey dahmer and dennis nilsen. andrew is the latter, jay is the former. now, i am of the belief that if this novel was not based on actual people and instead was entirely a work of fiction, martin could have gotten away with what he was trying to do - create a hellscape that is eerily close to human capabilities. however, the longer that the novel went on, the more i became uncomfortable with the uncanniness - it became a borderline fanfiction. martin made the k!llers fall in love and consequently go on a spree together, resulting in the death of a young boy whom jay had an obsession with. i held my nerve until the scene with the ignorant police officers occurred - of course, this happened to one of dahmer’s victims.
i felt as though this part especially was insanely disrespectful to the victims and their families because, unlike with true crime, it became a parody of what truly happened. the need to fictionalise something that was played out in reality in order to amplify the romance between two k!llers was nauseating to say the least.
furthermore, i have seen that racism plays a huge
part in reviews - i understand why the author may have changed the victim profile because dahmer especially targeted black men and in a work of fiction this would have come across more negatively as a reflection of the author. i feel as though martin wanted to portray the idea that racism played a part in true events, but did not execute it correctly.
whilst i disliked all of the above points, it is still too intricate to review properly due to the fact that it discusses contextual elements such as AIDS and intolerance of the gay community. it’s too complicated to review accurately, but i don’t think i’d recommend this to even the lovers of the darkest fiction.
2.75 stars (only because i found some of the latter mentioned points rather interesting, and there were some interesting philosophical debates running through the stream of consciousness).
for anyone familiar with the cases, when reading ‘exquisite corpse’ it will become clear to you that both k!llers in this book are based off of jeffrey dahmer and dennis nilsen. andrew is the latter, jay is the former. now, i am of the belief that if this novel was not based on actual people and instead was entirely a work of fiction, martin could have gotten away with what he was trying to do - create a hellscape that is eerily close to human capabilities. however, the longer that the novel went on, the more i became uncomfortable with the uncanniness - it became a borderline fanfiction. martin made the k!llers fall in love and consequently go on a spree together, resulting in the death of a young boy whom jay had an obsession with. i held my nerve until the scene with the ignorant police officers occurred - of course, this happened to one of dahmer’s victims.
i felt as though this part especially was insanely disrespectful to the victims and their families because, unlike with true crime, it became a parody of what truly happened. the need to fictionalise something that was played out in reality in order to amplify the romance between two k!llers was nauseating to say the least.
furthermore, i have seen that racism plays a huge
part in reviews - i understand why the author may have changed the victim profile because dahmer especially targeted black men and in a work of fiction this would have come across more negatively as a reflection of the author. i feel as though martin wanted to portray the idea that racism played a part in true events, but did not execute it correctly.
whilst i disliked all of the above points, it is still too intricate to review properly due to the fact that it discusses contextual elements such as AIDS and intolerance of the gay community. it’s too complicated to review accurately, but i don’t think i’d recommend this to even the lovers of the darkest fiction.
2.75 stars (only because i found some of the latter mentioned points rather interesting, and there were some interesting philosophical debates running through the stream of consciousness).
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I always struggle with how to rate books like this. Did I enjoy it, yes. Would I recommend it to the people in my life, no. The trigger warnings in this book are long. There's imagery in it that I won't forget. I was hoping for more of a "relationship" between the two serial killers, but I suppose this was a natural way for something like this to work out. Will I read this again, yes.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
the n word twice (white liberal author), romanticised SA turned to love, sub-wattpad writing, horrible dialogue, the whole book feels like exposition and descriptions until the end, and im finally a little interested but i cannot care
but this book doesnt feel like its saying anything — its just trying to be edgy and disgusting and its just making me uncomfortable in a bored way, if that makes sense
also there is an aids infection fetish in this!???? . i don’t think i was this book’s target audience.
but this book doesnt feel like its saying anything — its just trying to be edgy and disgusting and its just making me uncomfortable in a bored way, if that makes sense
eerrrmmm would have been a really great gorey splatterpunk gay mess but i was heavily distracted by the author's obvious asian fetish? u could not go two pages about the only asian character without reading something that sounds like it was said by a (white) person who was alive when they discovered electricity. i would include an example but i don't have the mental energy.. i'm just going to let u know i had to read the term "rice queen" more than once and the word "oriental" like forty billion times!!!!! LOL!!!!! and because this bothered me so bad i obviously had to look up to see if other people felt the same and saw very little commentary about it (which doesn't surprise me as a majority of the enjoyers of this subgenre are hwhite as hell) but did see that the two main serial killer characters were heavily based off of dahmer and nielsen, and that the death of tran - the exploited and sole asian character other than his stereotype of a father - was based!!! on a real life murder of a 14 year old!!!! i am going to barf!! the only redeeming quality this book has is that the writing is beautiful, but again i was distracted by how awful other aspects were. it's a shame!
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Your life collided with mine and you simply failed to survive the wreckage.”
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Brite was a beautifully written book about spoiled minds in decadent cities. Although it follows a serial killer who believes his destiny is to create art through murder, it felt like the underlying tone of where we belong in this world and how that directly influences our destinies really took hold of the story. It was gruesome and explicit, but that felt like background to what really was being said. I’ve been on a splatterpunk kick recently, testing my limits of horror and what I can handle. I thought this would be that. The story, though, surprised me. From the rotten alleys of London to the brightly packed streets of New Orleans, this story is less about murder and more about surroundings. So rarely do I read a story where the setting holds more of a sway than the actual characters. The AIDs paranoia in the 80s and the blatant homophobia in the States, class and wealth in various white families juxtaposed to foreigners trying to scrape by in various neighborhoods and districts. All of these factors breathed humanity into a story about homicide and disease. A hard read, sure; but an eye-opening one nonetheless.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Brite was a beautifully written book about spoiled minds in decadent cities. Although it follows a serial killer who believes his destiny is to create art through murder, it felt like the underlying tone of where we belong in this world and how that directly influences our destinies really took hold of the story. It was gruesome and explicit, but that felt like background to what really was being said. I’ve been on a splatterpunk kick recently, testing my limits of horror and what I can handle. I thought this would be that. The story, though, surprised me. From the rotten alleys of London to the brightly packed streets of New Orleans, this story is less about murder and more about surroundings. So rarely do I read a story where the setting holds more of a sway than the actual characters. The AIDs paranoia in the 80s and the blatant homophobia in the States, class and wealth in various white families juxtaposed to foreigners trying to scrape by in various neighborhoods and districts. All of these factors breathed humanity into a story about homicide and disease. A hard read, sure; but an eye-opening one nonetheless.
Um.. I don't know. 9 out of 10 books on my shelf are fantasy, other than that I mostly go for lighthearted chick flicks or comedies. That's why I found myself intruiged when I read the back cover summary. I don't like gorish details wether they are in books or movies but something about this book called to me. When I got back home I directly checked the reviews for the book and I was instantly mortified of having to read it (I'm a bit of a wuss really :P I close my eyes at horror scenes). I did find myself having to skip through some paragraphs, particularly through Jay's "intense" moments, but it wasn't as extreeme as everyone made it out to be. In fact, I actually found myself hooked unto the story and I coudn't wait to get to the part where Jay and Andrew meet (My favourite chapter). The only problem I faced is that I kept forgetting that ultimately this is Andrew's twisted story and the silly girl in me somehow wanted some sort of unrealistci fairy tale ending.. WTF? Ya I know :P. But now that I finished the book and am no longer attached to the characters, particularly Tran, I find that the ending is beffiting of the story and that somehow, I actually like Andrew.
I would say I do not recommend this for the faint of heart, or the happy ending lovers but I'm within these 2 cattegories and I actually liked it.
I would say I do not recommend this for the faint of heart, or the happy ending lovers but I'm within these 2 cattegories and I actually liked it.