Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

317 reviews

aly555's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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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more like a 4.25. i loved it for the most part and it def helped me expand my world view and gave me almost a second hand experience of everything the protagonist dealt with, but where it lost me was how it was its  rlly graphically detailed and borderline trauma-porn esque parts like let him be happy damn!!! but besides that i loved it it was a work of art

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Deadnaming, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Transphobia, Dysphoria

Minor: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion

k_noodlesoup's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional informative 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gore, Violence, Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual violence

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

oyuna152's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Abortion, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail

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

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.

joensign's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail

chloe_creature's review against another edition

4.75

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: Yes

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This book was very easily one of my favourite horror books I've read, the characters were well written and designed. 

I would recommend reading unless you are squimish or dislike body-horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship