madarauchiha's reviews
446 reviews

The Elementals by Michael McDowell

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

0.25

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

The first red flag was someone who enjoyed peter 'misogyny is great!' clines and dan '911 broke my brain so now i'm a huge islamophobe' simmons, and the second red flag was the endorsment from stephen 'racist as fuck' king. 

Jsesus christ. Of all the reviews for this, why are there so few people mentioning how unbelieveably racist this is? 

Odessa Red is the one prominent Black character. There are two others, her daughter [deceased] and her husband. Odessa speaks in broken english, the author's attempt at AAVE. She is a servant and, were this back in the 1800s, would have been a House Slave. She is 'content' in her role as servant and is shown uncomfortable with the liberal attempts to integrate her into the white family as a member rather than servant. I can understand this as the second a Black person or PoC in the deep south gets too 'out of line' with the deeply racist US South society bad, violent things start happening. 

note yes this happens everywhere, I won't say this is exclusive to the US South at all.

Odessa is also a Magical N*gro. She performs magic, so to speak, in an attempt to protect the family. The family, not just the 13 yo child, also berate and harangue her for explanations of the supernatural shit happening in the house. 

Odessa's arc ends with her
brutal off screen death, wherein the 13 yo white girl cannibalizes her eyes in order to gain Odessa's magical eye sight.


Yes that's right, the rich white girl from a rich white family
eats the poor Black woman's body. And then leaves her body there to rot. Odessa gets no respect even in death.


Her husband, mr Red, is a mooch, a drunk, a low class tactless jobless stereotype of a Black man. The one time he's shown on screen is
begging for money frm a rich white man. Neither he nor Odessa get any depth.


Her daughter appears once
as a monster to scare the rich white girl.


At this point I don't give a shit about the writing. It's southern gothic, haunted house, supernatural shit happens and there's no damn reason for it. It's never explored either. So there you have it. Doo doo kaka dog shit of a book.

note. the word n*gro is used one time.

minor pregnancy, drug abuse, ableism towards people who use drugs, child death, drowning, physical abuse, child abuse, murder, sexual content, xenophobia, death, stillbirth, cancer, 

medium animal death, gore, blood, cannibalism, alcohol, infidelity, car crash, sinophobia, racism, child death, 

major gore, blood,death, murder, fatphobia context being fat equal bad evil monster horror trope, arson, fire, bone fractures, injuries, body horror, blood, antiblack racism context being us south post civil war society, addiction ,alcoholism, toxic relationships, 

Here's some examples of antiblack racism.

▪ “When I’m dead, you make sure that Johnny Red don’t get a folded dollar of that money!”“I promise,” said Dauphin, but he was already scheming charity—trying to think of how he could take care of no-good Johnny Red in the unlikely case that that alcoholic loafer survived his common-law wife.


Dauphin is the rich white man who employs Odessa Red, wife to Johnny Red.


▪ India had always thought of herself as politically liberal—as Luker was—and with that liberalism came a discomfort with servants. Other appurtenances of the rich didn’t bother her, and she had often benefited from the largesse of some of Luker’s friends: weekends in large houses, rides in limousines and private planes, Beluga and Dom Perignon, private screenings and empty beaches—and had enjoyed them all without guilt. But servants walked and talked and had feelings and yet weren’t equal, and India thought that to deal with them was a practical impossibility. She asked nothing of Odessa, and would have prepared all her own food rather than be waited on by the black woman—except that Odessa insisted that she have the kitchen entirely to herself. India could not use the kitchen at the McCray house, for there the gas and the refrigerator had not even been turned on.


India is 13 btw.

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Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

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just as a reminder to my future self: that jay christoff is a freak a racist and a antisemite. Don't ever read sht they're involved with. MUAH.
The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling

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

3.75

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

I think I'd like this book if they toned down the misogny by at LEAST 99.999999 times a milllion percent.

Ok yeah I get it. It's a shitty misogynstic old fart of a rocker man who was originally from Nowheresville, population 50 people and their cow herding dogs. Does that mean it should've been misogyny free? No, I get the intentionally unlikeable protagonist. But it's so single faceted and suffers for it. I'd rather that it was an unending curse, passed on from person to person. The Camilla was not the first 'Camilla'. Camilla is a title, not a person, just like the Yellow King is a title used by multiple people in the book. 

Also jesus fucking christ, can we stop with the shitty anti Rromani g slurs already? Fifteen fucking times. Chop your fucking hands off already, we don't need that shit in 2022. 

Uhh let's see. The plot was. Thrilling! Interesting! Kinda flat at times. That might be due to being a retelling of someone's memories than anything else.

I really hated the ending. No, not the plot twist of the MC
being in a psych ward.
The plot twist of
oh we're finally releasing the album! And then the Camilla character shows up again? For some reason? Like hey wait, why is she here if the album is guaranteed to be released? Like wouldn't the album spreading throughout the world ensure she can complete the ritual? What does she need the reporter guy for?
Idk, I'm not thinking too hard on it.

minor drug overdose, alcohol, alcoholism, whorephobia, child death, car accidents, 

medium mental illness, suicide attempt, self harm, psychiatric institutions, 

major mental illness, murder, alcohol, self harm, toxic relationships, blood, misogyny, gore, torture, body horror, self harm, sexual assault context is
some sort of magical hypnotism into making the other person comply with sexual cintact despite earlier rejections
, infidelity, sexual content, drug use lsd, racial slurs, anti Rromani g slur 15 times, scars, drug use smoking tobacco, 

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Where They Wait by Scott Carson

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

I really love the mythology Carson has created. It's not a rip off of cosmic or eldritch horror and it's not the standard creepy haunted lighthouse. Not so far as I have personally read. There is enough left to the imagination to entice and encourage continued reading. 

I liked the blend of folk lore, science, and thought it pulled off the 'haunted app in my phone oh no!' very well. It's not exactly a haunted app though. I mean it is, but it's more than that. I'm looking forward to how electronics will be included more in horror genre. I know Ringu did it well, but there's got to be more out there.

I did not like the sexism. Ok so there's two women characters. One is a childhood friend, now adult just like the man MC. The other is the MC's elderly mother, who resides in a nursing  home due to a stroke. And that's all the women who get arcs, much less a consistent mention. Also yes, the one woman character is the love interest. You can guess what happens to her real easy if you know your tropes. The thing that irritated me about her character arc was that
she too was a child, a barely legal adult child, manipulated by an adult woman and told she could save her childhood friend [MC] if she assisted in medical abuse and gaslighting. And she did regret it, she went out of her way to come clean about it rather than have the MC come across it somehow. She showed remorse, she wanted to do the right thing by the MC and by her sister. And what happens to her character? She gets killed in about two paragraphs. I had to go back and reread it, it happened so quickly. I'd consider her body was disrespected in death as well, as he just left her there to burn.
Considering she was fairly high up in the company, and that undoubtably there were back ups of the app code, she should have
been allowed to live in order to dissolve the company and ensure this app never comes to fruition elsewhere.
To me, that's a huge loose end.


minor bill gates, car crash, death, drugs lsd, eminem, grief, indigenous racism w.nd.g. word used, insects, kidnapping, parental death, suicide

medium alcohol, cannibalism, domestic abuse, havana Syndrome but fictionalized and taken seriously, injuries, religion, sexual content, toxic relationships, war crimes

major arson, blood, car accidents, child abuse, child death, colonization, death, demolition, emotional abuse, fire, gaslighting, genocide, gore, gun violence, medical abuse, medical content, murder, physical abuse, stalking, suicide, torture, violence, 

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ALTAR by Philip Fracassi

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

largely disappointing. well written, kept the tension and pace decently, but went no where. It felt like a excerpt from a larger piece and I'm left confused as to what was the point of that?

Ok so basically a family goes to a swimming pool
and a mysterious hole opens up at the bottom of the pool, draining the water and occupants into the hole. People die. That's about it.


minor alcoholism, ableism, 

medium stalking, alcoholism, addiction, mouth trauma, anti indigenous racism, infidelity, 

major suicide, blood, death, drowning, child death, physical abuse, bullying, 

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Innocents Lost by Michael McBride

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

2.0

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨


Not only is this copaganda, but this is porn for men. No, lot like erotic or explicit materials. It's a story where burly manly men Do What Must Be Done even though it's illegal and immoral and they are the Heros Of The Story. It's very wish fulfillment aimed towards cishet men.

Female characters are an after thought. They're plackards on the museum of masculinity, denoting yes, this male character has gone through the standard path of life for manly burly cishet menfolk. Wife. Preteen Daughter(s). Student that's ethically off limits for fucking and also kinda bitchy because she's here to learn and not for her MRS degree. That's the extent of women characters. The more prominent ones are the Wives and we don't get much out of either. They lost a kid, blame the husband for not Doing Enough, and cease existing according to the plot. 

Supernatural shit?
Well the author did SOME reason which is far more than most white authors would do. Good job, I guess. And they get props for avoiding the racist Magical Evil Child Murdering Indians trope. 

I'd say the story is 15 percent supernatural horror, the rest copaganda thriller. It was decently written, I don't regret the hour spent reading it. Just go into it understanding that this is a very sexy, fluffy, completely fictional version of police and federal agents that does not exist in real life. 


Content Warnings
minor alcoholism, child death, 

medium suicide, school shooting, 

major self harm, injuries, confinement,  torture, child abuse, medical abuse,  gore, death,  gun violence, child death, ableism,  suicide ideation,  police, kidnapping, grief, 


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Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw

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

2.0

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

major antisemitism, body horror, drug use smoking tobacco, sexism as us common in noir genre, violence, 

medium victim blaming, anti black racism, domestic violence, sharps, 

minor child abuse, 

it was ok. i dont think ive ever read a Khaw book that i liked or enjoyed so this was a decent change of mediocrity from the author.

▪ Your actions say you do, princess. Unless you’ve got a fetish for being knocked around, none of this makes sense to me.” 

Ah, right. I'm remembering why I hate noir.

▪ He hated his stepfather, hated him like Hitler hated the face in the mirror.

What the fuck is this Khaw you stupid cunt.

▪ —a simian jaw, cheeks too wide and face too ugly, a lizard stare, heavy, hanging with sins. 

Fuck you for this too. 

Yah I think this author just sucks for me. I'm not reading more of their shit again.


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The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman

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emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

That was interesting and I did enjoy it. It was more suspense than horror, and had some gore to it. Not too much tho, thankfully. I'd suggest this if you need a quick read, or warm up your brain a lil. 
The plot twist is< spoiler> magical realism in which the mc's imagination can influence reality to some degree. Or can it??? Is it actually delusions due to childhood trauma and loss of parent?
Who knows.

major rats, animal death, gore, blood, vomit, injuries, parent death, death, 

medium injuries, 

minor religion catholicism, injuries, 

major rats, animal death, gore, blood, vomit, injuries, parent death, death, 

medium injuries, 

minor religion catholicism, injuries, 

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The Underdwelling by Tim Curran

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

If someone recs this to you, they're a missing step and red flag. Like, if you're Normal, I mean. If you got racist brain rot then there's no hope for you lmao.

The one indigenous character from an unnamed reservation and Nation,
who gets brutally killed.
He's also called
'Breed'.
Can you guess what that name is short for, considering he's mixed race irrc?

The first six chapters is just misogyny and homophobia and toxic masculinity in the workplace. I don't see how that's necessary to build the plot.

Skip to chapter seven if you wanna read horror type stuff. Though it's still not worth it. The plot twist is
there's a eldritch monster that's assigned female at discovery bc they have a higher pitched voice [trans lol from me goes here], and they're stuck in a cave, having hibernated for billions of years. When the miners fall into the cave, their sounds wake up the monster, who then kills them one by one. Meanwhile the entrance to this newfound cave collapsed on itself, so they're stuck there dying. Except for one man whom they kidnap and confined because, according to the author, they need a hetero marriage spouse. No really. The monster gives birth, the monsterlings crawling all over the kidnapped man. At the very end the other miners break through to rescure the miner, eventually. However it's implied that the monster will get jealous of the rescuers and murder them. The end.


▪ Boyd just stood there, trying to pull air into his lungs. He could not get past the idea that there was an almost feminine caliber to that cry. Anguished, haunted, and demented, but somehow female. Like some big and hideous insect imitating a human cry. The idea of that made his flesh crawl in waves. It was not a human voice or even a tone a human would be capable of producing, yet it was not strictly bestial and there was no denying a certain sorrow in its pitch.

Of course this author makes the horror monster into something feminine, because men are Normal, and women are weird bizarre evil creatures.

▪ Sure,” Maki said. “Breed’s a fucking injun. He’s waiting to get some of that free Indian casino money so he can be as lazy and useless as the rest of the tribe.”


I...... I need to author to die and their works to fade into osbcurity. Immediately.

major blood, body horror, child birth, death, homophobia, indigenous racism, injuries, misogyny, pregnancy, q slur, rape, rape threats, toxic masculinity, violence

medium parental death, 


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Carrier Wave by Robert Brockway

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0.25

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
Nine pages in and we got five total homophobic f slurs straight off the bat. nah fuck this author and everyone who recs him. You get what you pirate for from a fucking cracked dot com employee, I guess.

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