Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Devourers by Indra Das

3 reviews

mle11's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Cannibalism, Stalking, Violence, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Animal death, Rape, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Biphobia, Excrement, Homophobia, Vomit, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Kidnapping, and Self harm

Minor: Colonisation and Drug use

aardwyrm's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Like all the best horror, weird, gross, kinda horny, never fully explained, rich and dreadful and spooky and gory, gets its claws in and won't let go. Warning: One of the POV characters is a rapist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Classism, Rape, Child death, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Homophobia, Suicide, Violence, War, Abortion, Animal death, Body horror, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Kidnapping, Stalking, Vomit, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Torture

rorikae's review

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

‘The Devourers’ by Indra Das follows the story of shapeshifting creatures in India through two narratives translated by a college professor. 
The frame story focuses on Alok, a college professor who encounters a stranger one night in Kolkata who starts to tell him a story. The stranger asks Alok to translate two scrolls, which tell the stories of a shapeshifting creature and the woman that he is obsessed with. These stories weave together with the frame narrative to create a fable that leaks into the present. 
Das creates a fable that is wrapped in rich prose. His use of language is easy to understand but evocative. I listened to this book on audio and it leant itself to that format. 
Though the characters in the story aren’t necessarily likable, I was still interested in what was going to happen to them. The story is very focused on the two narratives that are told through the scrolls so we don’t get as much characterization for the professor in the frame narrative as I would have liked. Das discusses a number of themes in this work including hunger, obsession, and the influence of others on our own personalities. This last theme is explored in a visceral way through the fact that the shape-shifting creatures, sometimes called werewolves, sometimes something more, gain the memories of the humans that they eat. 
I would recommend this book, particularly if you are looking for stories steeped in folklore and with rich writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Rape, Sexual content, and Violence