Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

64 reviews

j_yarbrough's review

4.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Outing, Injury/Injury detail

em815ily's review

4.0

dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

amessina3399's review

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Is it weird to say that this book was...beautiful? Terribly deranged, and so sick and twisted, but the writing was *chef's kiss*. Brite has such a way with language that even the most horrific descriptions read like poetry. If you are a logophile like myself, this book is a must-read. That being said, expect all of the triggers (except those about women--to be honest, there are few to no women characters in this book). Brite somehow makes you fall in love with all of the characters--flaws, sins, and all--in a way that keeps the story devastating and strong. While this book is about serial killers, it's also about the AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s and how brutally it affected the queer community, and about the intimate lives and fears of the queer community of the time. This book will live on my shelf forever and will forever on be one of my favorites.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief

legere_libros's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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In its gore, this book finds beauty. In its vulgarity, this book finds honesty. In its rawness, this book finds meaning. There is something so blossomingly beautiful about "Exquisite Corpse" and the way it makes all its characters infinitely detestable and reluctantly enjoyable to read about. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, and my heart ached for Tran (only actually likeable character I fear) but there is definitely something profound here. I do think the beginning was maybe stronger than the end, which is largely tension and shock whereas I feel the beginning has more substance, and there are certain moments where the writing feels a bit clunky - I may have cringed a little when i saw "orbs" used fully unironically in a published work - but this is definitely a sure add to the "disturbing social commentaries" book iceberg.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Police brutality

hippieonsteroids's review

5.0

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

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This novel is very much a fictional story based off the life of Jeffrey Dahmer. The author includes an excerpt from Jeffrey Dahmers trial, giving the readers an automatic insight on what this book will be delivering. The story is extremely dark, the chapters each being from a different characters perspective was an interesting tactic for this author to use. The characters all meet at some point so their stories overlap but the author does this by switching midway from third to first person. But it would always be third person from Jay to Andrew Compton. Who because of this the reader would know that Andrew Compton was the main character. The book didn’t do this immediately, it did this when Andrew crossed paths with Jay and Luke, but oddly enough not Tran. This book was challenging in content wise not reading difficulty. Towards the end you get one last chapter in Tran’s third person perspective and it is painful. What this book does is exemplify how homophobia and racism was a major factor in why Jeffrey Dahmer got away with his murders for a number of years. This novel very much resembles Jeffrey Dahmer and his possible perspectives while also providing the perspective of the victims and the victims loved ones.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Vomit

eris_in_chains's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Thoroughly enjoyed this book though I must say that it's very much a product of its time (cannot tell whether the author intented to fetishize East Asian men here.) An interesting Jeffrey Dahmer fanfic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Alcohol

erica_reads_things's review

4.5

dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This is one of the "oldest" horror books that I have read on my journey so far and it did not disappoint! I could have gone for even more gore, personally, but I did really enjoy the intense emotional stories of the characters Tran and Luke. The inclusion of the AIDS epidemic and the societal commentary was a pleasant surprise amongst my expectation of a gory horror novel. This was just overall a pretty great, quick read and a must for horror fans. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Classism

Minor: Incest, Stalking

erkkmoon's review

5.0

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder

Moderate: Alcohol

katelynalice's review

3.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Minor: Incest, Stalking

guhguh's review

4.5

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Excrement, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol