issymaae's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • 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

3.0


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kibernick's review against another edition

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

4.0

Extreme body horror that’s beautifully written. A queer giallo movie of a book. Glad that I’ve read it and hope to not look at it ever again. CW: everything

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racl's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced
  • 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

It's not an easy read, and not one I can recommend to many people in good conscience. It's graphic in many ways - gore, sex, disease, anger - all of which is beautifully and carefully written. Each character feels distinct and well formed as they enter the story and begin to intertwine with each other throughout the novel. I didn't know much going in, but I enjoyed the reality and different perspectives of gay men dealing with the AIDS epidemic (and how it wasn't the motive for either of the murderers). I felt it was handled well.

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tmolitor24's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

3.0


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cady_sass's review against another edition

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

3.0

YIKES okay extreme horror might not be for me… this is widely understood to be one of the most disturbing books ever written and I can absolutely vouch. I am disgusted. Revolted. Horrified. Sickened. Every other synonymous descriptive word you can think of, I feel it. I hate this, and I hate that I know it will fester in my brain for a long, long time. The body horror is so gruesomely well depicted it may make you sick if you have a weak stomach, let alone some of the other content. This ain’t for me, but if you’re into deranged and depraved horror this is likely a 5 star book. It definitely accomplished what it set out to do, so… points for that. The writing is pretty spectacular when you take a moment to separate that from the actual content, if not a little overly verbose in more than a few parts. 

I’m going to stress again that I recommend this book to absolutely no one - look up the content warnings and read responsibly 🤢

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niccolowilliam's review against another edition

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

2.0

It started out horrible then got slightly better towards the end. Dont get me wrong i love disturbing and grotesque things. It honestly wasnt the way they talked about cannibalism and necrophillia it was the weird was they talked about asians and the fact that its clearly Jeffery dahmer 'inspired' (im using the nicer word) which made me really uncomfortable. His victims were real people and the author is definitely not in the demographic that dahmer went after to say the least so ot just feels tone deaf. Every gay charecter is a negative stereotype and
jay and andrew dont even meet until near the end of the story but the summary makes it seem like the main point of the book will be them together not just the mediocre conclusion
Even the sexual and gory stuff (so every other page) felt more for the sake of being shocking and disturbing than weaving an actual plot sometimes. I gave it two stars because there are definitely some moments i liked but i dont even have the energy to write every single issue i had with this story down

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cnossek's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • 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


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books_onthe_ground's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

See, this is the kind of book that you can’t just say “I loved it!” because you will get concerning looks but I did, in fact, love this book. I enjoyed reading it immensely! Which is strange to say because of the absolute horrendous and extremely graphic things that happen in this book, but that’s the point!! It’s supposed to be one of the most uncomfortable and graphic things you’ve ever read and it boy does it succeed in that!! This is probably the most graphic thing I’ve ever read and it FASCINATED me. As a horror reader and writer it was so interesting to see how much Billy was able to put in the book and it’s definitely going to be a book that stays in my head throughout my career. It’s not a book I would recommend for everyone because of the extreme content warns however I will absolutely be yelling about this book for YEARS to come. I’m so so so happy I finally read it and I can’t wait to read more of Billy’s work!!

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winsomefish's review against another edition

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

3.75


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smilingsammie's review against another edition

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

2.5


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