Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Devourers by Indra Das

4 reviews

belladonnashrike's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

I looooved this, loved the writing. very lush prose and a gorgeous story about transformation, trauma, love, & humanity. it gave me interview with the vampire vibes almost immediately and much like that story, this didn’t disappoint! I adore stories about the intersection of humanity and the supernatural and this really encapsulates everything I love about that sort of narrative.

I wish some things were explored more,

such as Alok’s relationship with his ex and the significance of gender - gender is so important in this novel and i wish it was spoken about more at the beginning,

but I really enjoyed this nonetheless. I think the author handled the (very) rough topics well and I love the transformation allegory so much - also extremely well done. 

I loved Alok and Cyrah (especially her, I adore her) so much. they felt so real to me and I just want to know more about them, but this shouldn’t be a series. I like where the stories were left.

I often skim reviews before reading a book, and I read multiple times about how (summarizing) gory and gross this book is but it honestly felt very tame. yes there’s entrails and sinew and blood but it wasn’t as much as I was led to believe. am I the weird one? there IS a lot of piss imagery but it’s about a werewolf-type of creature. they’re dogs. they are territorial. it makes sense! 

anyway, I was really bewitched by this book. i’ve had it sitting on my shelf for years and just never picked it up for some reason but I’m so glad I finally read it!

additionally: I often read the acknowledgements and all the extra stuff at the end of books and I was very pleasantly surprised with the final lines in das’ acknowledgements. very indicative of their character and I do appreciate this inclusion.

content warnings in moderate tag bc i’m lazy

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, Rape, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Vomit

talonsontypewriters's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Murder, Rape, and Death of parent

Moderate: Kidnapping, Child death, Abandonment, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Sexism, War, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Vomit

Minor: Classism, Homophobia, Transphobia, Colonisation, Abortion, Dysphoria, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, and Racism

Smoking. Urination. Discussion of and explicit descriptions of rape, as well as depiction of aftermath, but no extended scene. Sexual coercion, victim blaming/justification of rape (by character; criticized by others and narrative), discrimination against sex workers. Pregnancy and birth by rape. Decapitation. Metaphorical mentions of bestiality. Sexual relationships in a shapeshifter-unique dynamic compared to but not necessarily equivalent to parent-child dynamics, where one party has sometimes been raised by the other since youth; discussed and alluded to, but not graphically shown on-page.

squid_ears's review

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Gore, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Excrement

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Colonisation

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