Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

48 reviews

book_creature's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Drug use, Hate crime, Self harm, Animal death, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Transphobia, Violence, Antisemitism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Body horror, Dysphoria, Homophobia, and Sexism

Moderate: Classism, Trafficking, Body shaming, Genocide, and Excrement

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Racial slurs

"This novel covers racism, antisemitism, transphobia, rape (both in abstract and graphic ways), self harm, and suicide."

ericarobyn's review

dark tense slow-paced

2.0

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt is a horribly bleak story told from various perspectives that are all linked in the darkness of a past that won’t let them go. 

Content Warning:
This is one of the darkest books, centered around fascism and trauma. The author has a wonderful warning at the start. For my full list of content warnings below.

Three years after a traumatic event in an old house, two individuals struggle with trying to overcome the past. Spirilng, rather than healing, they soon realize there’s only one way out of this… they have to go back to the house.

A slow, rambling tale told from various perspectives, we have:

• Alice – Told in the first person. Alice struggles with finding a place to settle as the atmosphere of each place slowly starts to become too much. Alice tells one story after another, slowly revealing her traumas and struggles as she continues to recall the past and tries to outrun her ghosts.
• Ila – Told in the third person. Ila is determined to get involved in anti-trans groups. She has a hard time moving forward trying to find herself as so much of her thoughts are stuck in the past.  
• Hannah – A friend of the first two who just wanted to be seen and respected by her friends. Unwaveringly loyal, even when she saw the red flags, she went along with her friends' plans anyway.
• House – The house has a long history, but the house doesn’t care about the past like the two others, instead, the house just wants the two back inside it now. 

Reading Part One, which spans the first half of the book, from Alice and Ila’s perspectives, felt like dealing with two friends that are fighting and each of them are trying to turn you against the other. Now you’ve seen the cracks in both of their stories and arguments, and you can’t believe either of them because of how unreliable they are. 

Part Two gives us some much-needed backstory as we jump back in time to see the traumas each have been trying to live through within the first half of the book. And boy, are these traumas brutal.

Part Three brings the two friends back together, for better or for worse. But is what they’re about to do going to help or hurt?

There are so many dark elements that were woven into the text here. Terrible things like transphobia, homophobia, wicked violence, and much more. Just one very small element that was displayed was the toxicity of social media and the internet in general when used for harm. 

An all-around dark, depressing, and brutal story that doesn’t hold back with the raw, real-world horrors.

My Favorite Passages from Tell Me I’m Worthless 

There was a thick fog in the air. When cars and trucks shot passed, down the road, their headlights looked like the eyes of ghosts.

Haunted houses are rarely neat. If the House was truly haunted, then that haunting spilled out of its broken or boarded up windows, soaking into the fertile earth around it. The trees still grow, but the squirrels in their branches often feel the sudden need to bite each other in the eyes.

In the mirror lla can see that she is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her traumas sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.

Now, if three girls enter a house and only two leave, who is to blame?
And if both girls tell a different story, but you read online that you have to BELIEVE WOMEN, what do you?

Memory is a difficult thing to navigate, especially traumatic memory. It splinters. You can cut yourself on the edges of it so easily.

My Final Thoughts on Tell Me I’m Worthless

Reading this felt a bit like walking in the dark house, complete with twisted hallways that suddenly split, sending you on a new path feeling bewildered, sad, and angry. 

For readers of the extreme that don’t mind very, very dark, and upsetting tales, this one will be a good fit for you. However, I cannot stress this enough, this is a book to tread lightly with. If you are easily impacted by darkness, this may not be a good fit for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Lesbophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal death, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Hate crime, Racism, Transphobia, Body horror, Gaslighting, and Gore

gorejoyous's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Animal death, Sexual assault, Rape, Transphobia, Body horror, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Drug use, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Excrement, Vomit, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

kirsty_laird's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Violence, Animal death, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Blood, Deadnaming, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Deportation, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Rape, Dysphoria, Excrement, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

ellisdex's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Rape, Racism, Antisemitism, Body horror, Sexual content, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Misogyny, Alcohol, Blood, Dysphoria, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Car accident, Torture, Death, Infertility, Murder, Vomit, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

cathy_reads's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Rape

Moderate: Drug use, Antisemitism, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death

aus10england's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

An absolutely incredible work of queer horror fiction. I’ve never read anything like it. The house being a central character was SO well done. There are some HORRIFIC things in this book, but they don’t feel gimmicky or use in a way as to illicit shock factor. Some interesting political commentary in there as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Rape, and Transphobia

Moderate: Vomit, Suicide, Toxic friendship, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death

throwback682's review against another edition

dark tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This is the most disturbing book I’ve ever read in my life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Colonisation, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Animal death, Classism, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Rape, Blood, Dysphoria, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Antisemitism, Gore, Excrement, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Deportation, and War

billie_budd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

absolutely brutal read but so so worth it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Racism, Suicide attempt, Blood, Xenophobia, Body horror, Antisemitism, Transphobia, Sexual violence, and Rape

Moderate: Vomit, Misogyny, Classism, and Drug abuse

Minor: Infertility, Animal death, Excrement, and Pedophilia

gia0203's review

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book showed how fascism is circular - how our history is shared and how quickly our anger at our own circumstances becomes hatred for others. It was hard to read at times, but that’s the point. Horror is a fantastic way to examine the world around us, and Alison knows it.

The climax of this book is harrowing and I felt nauseous reading it. What a fucking ride. The way the text splits into two… Original, terrific. 

I will say though that the idealistic ending between Alice and Ila is forced. This book should have ended on page 252. I don’t buy for a second that they could’ve escaped that house and moved on so happily. Maybe I’m pessimistic, but trauma isn’t so easily erased and radicalism can’t be so quickly undone. These two were doomed from the start. It was just too quickly wrapped up. I felt like Alison was just too fond of them to give them the ending they should have had.

 

I also think that the social commentary became too much at times. I understood the point was that all oppression is similar, but it was just a bit too much to comprehend.

That said, I will never read this book again, but I would completely recommend it. It is not for the faint of heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Transphobia, Antisemitism, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Death, Suicide, Drug abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Self harm, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abortion, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Excrement, and Gun violence