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erica_reads_things's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Cannibalism, Body horror, Murder, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Death, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, Drug use, Sexual violence, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Classism, Animal cruelty, Addiction, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Incest and Stalking
jully_bean's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Vomit, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Racial slurs, Violence, Rape, Suicide, Sexual content, Body horror, Dysphoria, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pedophilia, Murder, Excrement, Addiction, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Police brutality, and Terminal illness
erinmichele_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Cannibalism, Gun violence, Torture, Rape, Alcohol, Murder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Chronic illness, Addiction, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, and Terminal illness
venpyre's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
It was like…. if you were to take a metal detector to a polluted swamp. You’d have to drudge through the gunk and bear the claustrophobic humidity at the chance of finding even a bit of treasure. But somehow that makes what you <i>do</i> find all the more valuable? Not that anyone would advise you to go metal detecting in a swamp but I digress.
I feel like this book has aged particularly well in time for our era. In a post-NBC-Hannibal world we can more openly study depictions of love and lust in literature that splinter into death, obsession, and the need to consume/meld into one.
Brite’s ability to conjure these characters, the vilest people you could never dream up in your worst nightmares, is nothing short of astounding. Without comparing the texts too heavily (as I believe they exist for starkly different reasons) Andrew’s inner monologue reminded me somewhat of the eloquent but absolutely atrocious musings of Nabokov’s infamous protagonist, Humbert Humbert. The gleam of poetry and intelligence in the prose is enough to propel you forward despite the horrors you have to endure on page.
I wish the book was comprised mostly of Andrew’s perspective rather than switching between his and a summary of Jay. I did, however, appreciate Tran’s chapters, as it humanized him and made him much more than just an object/victim.
That being said, I’m not sure how to parse the descriptions of Asian men in this novel. While not excusing the racist remarks of the book’s characters, I did have to remind myself it was written in the 90s, and depicts the time period faithfully. The way Tran is described is undoubtedly fetishistic. That may be the point. EC treads a fine line that unfortunately holds it back from landing its otherwise graceful pirouette.
Not sure if I knew EC was splatterpunk before diving in, but I’m glad I waited until I was a little older and more versed in horror before reading it. Trigger warning for about everything imaginable and then some. Your mileage may vary to the extreme. If you feel like you can find beauty in near senseless chaos, and have the stomach for its graphic descriptions, you might enjoy Exquisite Corpse.
Graphic: Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Suicide, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Torture, Homophobia, Addiction, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Body horror, Blood, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
Moderate: Self harm, Confinement, Medical content, Excrement, and Outing
Minor: Vomit, Eating disorder, and Police brutality
racl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Death, Drug use, Rape, Sexual content, Gore, Grief, Abandonment, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Excrement, Vomit, Cancer, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Incest, Police brutality, Hate crime, Misogyny, and Pandemic/Epidemic
haloblues's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Fucking Jesus. I felt sick, sad and absorbed throughout this, and I don't even know what my prevailing emotion is at this point. Just, man. Like Luke's own books, this is something you either love or hate, and I'm closer to love than the latter. Mostly I'm just reeling.
The reasons I can't justify rating it higher are:
- It is very much a product of its time, both in positive ways (the visceral and emotional look into the AIDS crisis) and, unfortunately, negative (the casual but deep racism and fetishisation, particularly toward Asians).
- There were a couple of punctuation and wording errors, for some reason generally found in Luke's chapters specifically.
- At least with the e-book version, which I read on my phone, perspective changes often wouldn't even be sign-posted with a line break, so I'd quite often be reading and get caught completely off-guard by some jarring location switch or "wait what" moment before going back and realising it was now from the POV of a different character than before.
- I found myself skimming most of Tran and Luke's sections the further in I got; I liked Luke as a character, though I found Tran fairly boring, but you can't write a book with two serial killer protagonists and then put me in the shoes of a random immigrant doing random daily things and expect me not to just really want to get back to seeing what the freshly prison-busted murderer is up to.
- I really wish Jay hadn't died at the end. It felt like his and Andrew's dynamic had only just begun, and didn't really explore the longer-term potential. Both the narrative and Andrew seemed to treat their relationship as this world-shattering, fated, destined soulmate deal, and I wanted to feel how legendary and destructive this pair could be... and then, it seemed, they met, got started, and one of them was immediately killed.
Details: Alternating POVs and tenses
Favourite character: Probably Andrew
Happy ending?: No
Additional content warnings: Necrophilia, homophobic slurs
Favourite quotes:
In Leicester Square, children of a different sort sat smoking in the park, painted children who of a Saturday might parade up and down the King's Road staring in the shop windows at zebra-striped vinyl raincoats, at Dr. Marten boots done up in purple glitter, at lace body stockings for all sexes - and at the gaudest, prettiest things of all, their own reflections in the glass.
Below the neck these children wore black, gray, and white garments of various materials and textures, held together with bits of metal. Above the neck they were like abstract paintings done in furious rainbow hues. A technicolour scribble of tortured hair, great panda-smudges of azure or chartreuse round the eyes, a slash of vermilion across the soft young mouth, and off they went.
"Anyway, you know atoms? Well, see, atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and those are made of quarks."
"What are quarks made of, then?"
"Waves."
"Waves?" I had now finished my third pint, and was beginning to be outraged. "But waves aren't tangible. They're just disturbances."
"Vibrations, right! The whole universe is made of vibrations." He beamed, oblivious to my dismay. "Neat, huh? Anyway, we haven't been introduced yet. I'm Sam." He held out a long-fingered, smooth-palmed hand that looked very much like my own. I grasped it, half-expecting my flesh to pass ghostlike through his. After all, we were nothing but vibrations. All the stone and iron of Painswick Prison was nothing but vibrations. Had I known, I could have begun vibrating at a different frequency and gone right between the bars.
I had a last look at Sam, offered him a silent apology for not being able to linger, for leaving him alone here. Your life collided with mine, I explained, and you simply failed to survive the wreckage.
"What brings you to New Orleans?"
"The climate."
"Moral or meteorological?"
"Both."
We paused, offering noncommittal half-smiles, sizing each other up. He wasn't my usual type, and I had a hunch that I wasn't his either. Yet I didn't want him to move on, and he seemed in no hurry to go.
At last he asked me, "What's your name?"
Before, in my previous life, I'd told all the boys my real name. There had never seemed any need to do otherwise. Tonight I had been using Arthur, since none of the men who approached me were interesting. But to this man I said, "Andrew."
Then somehow we were kissing as ravenously as I had ever kissed anyone, alive or dead.
My fingers were tangled in his hair, tugging so hard it had to hurt. His tongue was in my mouth, raking against the sharp edges of my teeth, feeling as if it would plunge straight down my throat and choke me. He tasted of blood and rage. His kiss was laced with the slow savour of pain. I knew these tastes; they were the tastes in my own mouth, the flavour of my life.
I did not know what Jay was, not yet; but on some instinctual, almost biological level I recognized him. I knew then that this man was infinitely dangerous to me. I also knew that I had to go as deep inside him as he would let me.
As I stood and faced him, the expression on Jay's face was something like wonder. "What are you?" he asked.
I touched my fingers to the bead of scarlet on his throat, brought them to my lips and tasted his blood for the first time. "I'm your nightmare. Did you think you were done with nightmares now you've become one?"
I always have to laugh at writers who employ the phrase "Something snapped inside him" as a prelude to violence. The only time I ever felt anything snap inside me was the day I decided to leave prison, a sharp immediate relief like the snapping of an elastic that had constricted my heart for years. But when I saw that first drop of blood - always, when I saw the first drop of blood - something melted inside me. Like a wall of earth crumbling and dissolving in a hard rain, like a sheet of ice breaking apart and letting a river run free.
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicide, Rape, Self harm, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Addiction, Cannibalism, Racism, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Incest, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Drug use, Gore, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Torture, and Toxic relationship
cnossek's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gore, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Stalking, Abandonment, Body horror, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Chronic illness, Classism, Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Torture