Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

155 reviews

szek's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

CONTENT WARNING:
Be advised, this novel contains body horror, violence towards and by children, and cruelty towards insects and animals.

The Troop by Nick Cutter is a good work of horror, and largely as a result of its visceral content it has become his most well known. The novel is weak on character development but has a decent and easy to follow plot.

The novel capitalizes on body horror, and David Chronenberg fans will be right at home with this one.

Nick Cutter has alot more for horror lovers if you 'dive' into his other offerings. 

This reviewer deliberately chooses not to discuss plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, and Gore

_stephk10's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

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

2.5

Terrible writing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Torture, and Toxic friendship

jaeru33's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

It was deeply disturbing in a visceral kind of way. Like an accident or a train wreck you can't quite look away from. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and it carried me along quite swiftly, but moments within the book made my stomach turn.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Body horror

Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia

katieo156's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Body horror to the max. This book was dark and did not let up, and there was more than one moment where I had to take a breather. I think this pushed me to my limit especially because of the age of the characters, and combining that with body horror made it a tough read. I really liked the format-

past/current/future with news articles and coverage about the situation made it feel like a much richer world and connected each character back to humanity.

Definitely do not pick this up unless you're ready for gore, seriously disturbed character(s), and very little light to be seen at the end of the tunnel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

pholcidae's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

Written in a horrific but beautiful prose. The use of language keeps your brain working overdrive to figure out what’s happening. I didn’t put this book down once I’d started it!

Due to personal preference, the book didn’t scare me. It’s certainly gross, awfully descriptive, and tense, but I fear the Big Bad is introduced too soon which dampened any sense of terror I may have felt. Otherwise a book I would recommend any fans of horror in general should read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual content

photogenicegg's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

It was not scary in the way I thought it would be. I thought it would keep me up at night, but it was just disgusting gore that made me want to puke at times. And wtf was that ending? Bogus.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Excrement, Vomit, and Police brutality

mccormicke2's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Eating disorder

mewpasaurus's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

4.5

Normally, I'd be keeping (and re-reading) any book I rate this highly, however, Nick Cutter's The Troop is an exception; it's too gruesome and descriptive when it comes to wanton animal cruelty. It's incredibly well written and engaging and it definitely does body horror well (something I find hard to find in written works), but I just don't care to re-read accounts of squishy, gross torture of animals and the whiny, teenage narratives of the main characters.

If you like body horror, you'll probably find this is a good/fast read. It's also worth noting that while the characters aren't necessarily likeable, they are not two dimensional and do seem to be complex in the way I would say most pre-teens/teenagers tend to be, which made it more believable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

whatifem's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming and Bullying

nerdywerewolf's review

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It's Stephen King-level writing in terms of engaging storytelling. A decisive voice.

The reason it won't be a re-read is due to the same relationship I have with Grady Hendrix's work. It's gross, which, believe it or not, is a compliment.

I can do psychological torment, body horror, monsters...but throw in crawling bugs and now it's icky.

This and the other visceral descriptions of everything the characters see are intense for someone who can really put their imagination into someone's words.

All that said, it was a great story with heroes and villains and secret plots and jump scares and fidgety dread.

I loved the way the boys and their Scout Leader interacted. Getting to know each boy was either great or fascinating as the story progressed.

The ending felt right. Same feeling as movies like Disturbing Behavior or The Faculty, though the plot is far different.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Self harm, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming and Bullying