Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

53 reviews

killmoore_'s review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

So. I think the best word for this book is "yucky". Between graphic body horror, grotesqu situations and disturbing inner monologs, this book had me questioning whether I could keep reading as I frantically flew through It's pages.

Every single character in this book is beautifully written, even if it is horrific. Each character comes with their own unique backstory that pulls you in, whether out of pity or pure disgust. Loved it.

I saw a lot of reviews about animal abuse that made me weary going in and I have to agree - it's detailed. It's awful. It's not for the faint of heart. 

A final note - bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. If that is a no go for you, don't bother with this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

smeagol357's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, and Fatphobia

paperbackparker's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Absolutely disgusting.
I loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

dezaraemd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and War

ghostbirds's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Gore, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Sexual content, Vomit, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 Holy shit. Ever since I picked this book up I’ve been thinking about worms. I boarded a flight and as soon as my ears started to gum up my first thought was that it had to be worms. Worms that snuck in there and are curling up, just waiting to spread out and suck the nutrients from my body. Jesus just thinking about the plot of this book gives me goosebumps. Nick Cutter describes every in painstaking detail. This is both a pro and a con. On one hand, I'm completely immersed in the story and I appreciate his creative (and terrifying) analogies and on the other, I am increasingly disgusted with every flip of a page. Speaking of analogies his comparison of human bones jutting out under skin to a trombone in wrapping paper KILLED ME.

Cutter does such a great job characterizing the boys of Troop 52. They make mistakes, they're full of angst and curiosity. The relationships between the boys are complex and I absolutely loved the layers to this. In the first half of the book, I found all of them to be little shits. This continued until the end, but I also realized I was being unfair to these characters. And maybe it was the point to despise them all a little bit.

The structure of this story, traditional chapters intermingled with newspaper articles, interviews, research logs etc was unconventional and I enjoyed it so much. The story wouldn't be the same without it. I read the acknowledgments for once and turns out Cutter was inspired to do this by Stephen King's Carrie, so maybe that will be one of my next reads.

Songs:

• Sick of Being Young - Krooked Kings
• Christmas Kids - ROAR

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Medical content, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia and Excrement

randanopterix's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This book is an absolute fucking nightmare, I mean this in the best way possible. 
Not for even the remotely faint of heart, I usually have a strong stomach for media like this but event I had to avoid the book for a couple of days when my real life got stressful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

emmalizzz's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Bullying

entityj's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Vomit, Stalking, and Gaslighting

kimberlyswalters's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

I had to stop reading this book several times. I'd read in forums that this book was too gory, too disgusting, too much. I thought people were exaggerating. They're not.

It was very well-written and the concept was good, but there was too much detail. I learned too much about some of these characters, especially Shelley.

I honestly don't believe we needed to know that he was erect as he murdered that poor kitten. Things like that are just thrown into this book for shock value and add no substance to the story. The worm swimming into his urethra was disgusting, but that's fine because it explains how they infected him. The erections were pointless and weird to imagine when reading a book about minors. I do know that serial killers do feel that way about their heinous acts of violence, but I don't need to know that about this child. It happens multiple times throughout this story. Bleh.

Is it scary? No. Is it gross? Absolutely. I'd only recommend this abomination to those that just want to read about some gross worms and gets off to body horror.

I'd recommend this to Shelley.

Overall, it was well-written and I genuinely enjoyed Max, Ephraim, and Newt. I don't think Kent's character was fleshed out enough for me to care about him. His father's character made more of an impact. I am not a religious person by any means, but I do think the author may benefit from Jesus and some therapy. In fact, I need therapy after reading this. My appointment is scheduled for three weeks from now. I'm not hopeful that I'll make it until then with this content wiggling around inside of my head. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail