Reviews

Wie die Schweine by Agustina Bazterrica

heyashes's review against another edition

5.0

Absolutely horrifying. This book will stick with me for a long time, and I don't think in a good way.
After reading other reviews I thought I had the ending figured out. I thought that this book had no more horrible surprises that it could throw at me. I was wrong.

If you are into bleak horror with an underlying commentary that will haunt you for a long time to come, I highly suggest this book.

autumn_franks_03's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

nopejustkate's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

3.0

This book was so twisted. I was disgusted, but it was an interesting look at a dystopia 

adrianadelrs's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

sparkin's review against another edition

4.0

Trigger warnings for... well, most things, actually. This is one of the bleakest and most brutal things I've ever read. It's incredibly well written and translated, but I can neither say I enjoyed it nor encourage anyone else to read it.

citrus_seasalt's review against another edition

3.5

After talking with my sibling (who really liked this story), I appreciated some aspects more, particularly in the case of the main character(Marcos)’s hypocrisy and self-justifying beliefs, but I still wanted more depth out of the writing. There isn’t much discussion on the societal structures and issues that go into what makes a human worthy of their humanity, and what makes them meat. The weirdly nonchalant, mundane recount of a brutal world actually works for the premise imo because it ties into the theme of how people become desensitized to atrocity(made especially noticeable by  how irredeemable the MC is). But at times, the translation makes it feel stiff and disconnected.

Still, I’m keeping my rating slightly above a 3 stars because I liked the writing, the zoo segments (the exposition in the puppy scene was very shoehorned in, though. That’s excluded from this), the bits of worldbuilding in how “the transition” affected other parts of the world(but that wasn’t explored in depth or often), and how Marcos was handled as an unreliable narrator.

jacobkolk's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

All was well and dandy until chapter 6 of part 2. To randomly bring up one of my major triggers out of nowhere, adding nothing to the story, significantly hindered this book for me. Maybe you can stretch it to say that it broke Marcos' mind even more,  but I feel like that could have been better executed with other methods.
This book wasn't nearly as graphic as it could have been. Anyone loosing sleep over this are most certainly lightweights (sorry).
I know for certain this book could have gone down an insane and graphic rabbit-hole if it had continued with the themes in the first few chapters. Those made me so excited for the rest of the book. The ending was decent.

irinareadsalot's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

yuze's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

i went into this book thinking it would be commentary or some kind of dark literary fiction but it's definitely not either of those. maybe this was a horror or dystopian fiction? nothing in this book was disturbing enough for me to consider it a horror so i guess it's dystopian then. the concept is definitely very interesting but it wasn't executed very well. there's a bunch of ideas in there that are not explored enough. it felt like multiple stories combined and none of them are complete.

claudiabelcin's review against another edition

4.0

This book was so disturbing, yet i enjoyed it a lot. I'm a bit traumatized... not for long hopefully