Reviews with content warning for Violence - Cows

Obvious reflection of society and the place of an individual in said society. Focus on darkness and emptiness of the world and people within.

For my taste too much focus in disgusting details for the sake of being shocking. There is no natural development into crazy things, all is described as horrible as possible.

In comparing for example “American Psycho” managed to show insanity inside the normal world, which “cows” misses to deliver on.

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elderlyemo's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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? Yes

3.0

After sitting with this one for a while, I upped my rating to a three star because this book is definitely a little bit different from the other books it often finds itself compared to.

First of all - it is well written, and does contain within it some really interesting reflections on power, nuclear family, social isolation, self worth and mental health. Steven is a very interesting character who whilst being a bit simple in practice, comes off as compelling in the prose.

Having said that, the quality of the writing makes me feel like the author could have written a much better book. The worst parts of this book - in terms of physical repulsion - are at the beginning and it does slow down into a more manageably disgusting book towards the end (right around where the titular cows start to really impact the narrative) is it still unrelenting and gross? Yes, but I don't think it's necessarily without merit.

This definitely isn't a book for everyone, but I read it in one sitting and annotated quite a lot of it which is usually an indication to me and my own depraved mind that I am getting *something* out of it. What did I get out of Cows? I don't know. But it was something.

I think how popular this book got led to its own downfall and I see it a lot on the Most Disturbing Books of All Time lists - which it totally should be - but I think the absolute lunacy of this story makes it wholly less disturbing.

I'm looking forward to reading more from this author in the future because genuinely - it could be about literally anything. Solid three stars.

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kingnixon's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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sylvermoon's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

1.5

Basically splatterpunk. Didn’t enjoy it at all, and not even for gore / similar reasons. Cows speaking and the slaughterhouse environment were so ridiculous. I would have DNF, except I don’t ever do that.

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jocelyn73c's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I'm not a big splatterpunk reader. Extreme gore is not really my thing. This book really pushed a lot of my boundaries, but that being said I thought the writing was good and there was an actual message about male isolation and dominance over others that I thought was well illustrated. I won't ever read it again, but I'm not mad I read it this one time.

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