Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

358 reviews

leahrosereads's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

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Holy shit what a book to start the 2025 Trans Rights Readathon with. This is the second book I've read by White, and I genuinely can't imagine ever giving his works anything other than 5 stars.

The Trans and Autism rep, the horror, the history, the settings - it was all so, so fucking good and horrifying. Because the historical elements of illegal surgeries done on marginalized identities, while recorded, was worse than what was in here. And what was in here was a disturbing, brutal piece of what happened.

This was haunting, and I flew through it. Started and finished in the same day, like under 5 hours.

Highly recommend but please be in the right headspace. There's a lot of triggers to note, and I'll do my best to mark them all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail

melontheinternet's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I read this book a month or so ago and it still occupies a sizable part of my brain way too often. It’s very violent and some images are very graphic (see content warnings). It’s scary, horrifying, but also hopeful and a lesson in bravery and resilience. 

The only part that was a bit disappointing is that the magic system felt underused. While the fact that the main character is basically forced to stay in that school adds to the tense atmosphere of the book, this also means that the magic can feel unexplored, being more of a plot device than an actual fantastic element. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Sexual assault, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood

Moderate: Rape

there is detailed accounts of both dissection and vivisection, as well as a detailed c-section scene. Also the torture is very graphic, with descriptions both of the torture and of people who have been tortured

izzyrbell's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Dysphoria

jatoha's review against another edition

3.0

dark sad tense medium-paced

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Read for the Trans rights read a thon. How to rate a book that's really well written but too disturbing for my tastes? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Suicide attempt

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Vomit

angelkate42's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional 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

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This book is amazing and BRUTAL. I would not have changed a thing, but be warned, it will absolutely wreck you. I actually burst into tears when it was over, just from the emotional intensity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Medical content, Suicide attempt

pobi's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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I definitely FELT for the characters and was so so swept up in the mystery. But also I have never felt ill while reading before and this definitely made me feel unwell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail

brekaboujie's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Look. I'm not built for horror. This was genuinely extremely disturbing at points and I had to skip one of the scenes because it was so horrendously visceral but at the same time this book was brilliant. I've never read such an authentic and unapologetic depiction of trans and autistic identity. There were parts of this that made me so hopeful and there were parts that made me want to absolutely burn the world down and kill every man. This was extremely good. But also, don't read this if you are not into legitimate horror in the classical, horrifying themes sense. I'm surprised this is a YA book as well?? As it's again. Absolutely horrifying. Anyways. Excellent ending, so if you can stomach the gore and abuse then it does leave you feeling somewhat satisfied and ... vindicated? Perhaps the wrong word. But good lord, it's intense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Abortion

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual assault, Transphobia

Minor: Cannibalism

pjv's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death

keyaunnalb's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Abortion, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Dysphoria

Minor: Vomit

devinjai6655's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

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This story made me feel so seen as an autistic person who doesn't fit into the inherent gender binary. This book is dark and tragic and the newest contender for what I like to call The Feel Bad Club. 
That being said, I love books that make me feel something, and this had me running through so many emotions. And, just so everyone knows, the ending is

relatively happy.

Silas and Daphne live together and are married and living their best lives as their authentic selves, but some characters dont make it...

Yall shoulda heard my sqeal when Daphne introduced herself to Silas the first time in the parlor. I was hoping she'd be accepting, but we love a well developed and supportive T4T couple!

PLEASE, check your triggers. This book is intense but so good! Take care of yourself and know your limits. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Abortion, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Death of parent, Outing, Classism

Minor: Toxic friendship

Silas is a trans man that is regularly dead named, forced to mask his autism, and the whole book essentially misgenders him because this is a historical fantasy set in a supremely misogynistic society and he is viewed as a girl by almost everyone. There's INTENSE medical scenes in here such as

a cesarean abortion he preforms on his teenage friend who was raped and impregnated by an adult man, some scenes of animal dissection throughout, gross depictions of self harm thoughts such as removing his own eyeballs, finding his best friend dead after gone through a vivisection, and other scenes.

There's also gross pedophilia and sexual harassment. While there isn't anything penetrative on page, there's gross implications and extremely disturbing scenes of old men being gross because they can be

like impregnating teenage girls against their will with the help of the institution. I'm being totally serious. The youngest we know is 14 in this book, Silas is 16.

There's lots of pregnancy talk in the general sense about other people and, for Silas, lots of "do i not wanna be because I don't wanna be a parent, or is it because of my dysphoria?" Yeah, the trigger warnings for this book is extensive and i wasn't expecting it so please take care of yourself and know your limits.