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sargasso_c's Reviews (516)
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
This collection, as can now be expected of Eric LaRocca, has a few gems amongst a group of overall pleasing -or at least well crafted - and shiny rocks. The last story in the collection, Please Leave or I'm Going to Hurt You, stood out to me as significantly better than the rest. I would give that story alone a 4.5 rating. I also enjoyed the stories Bodies are for Burning and You're Not Supposed to be Here. To me, Bodies had an underlying meaning. One could interpret Bodies as the story of someone who shifts from "The bond of motherhood is something I know I'll never understand." to someone that certainly acts like a Parent in terms of fearless self-sacrifice for the child in her care. This transformation is after an almost magical encounter with an elderly woman in a hardware store. With a phrase that seemed to carry at the same time hypnotic and hypnosis-breaking properties, the main character, Hailey, is changed in an instant from someone consumed by compulsion and selfishness, to just what the elderly woman calls her: "a loving mother." While I'm still pondering my interpretation of the subtext in You're Not Supposed to be Here, I definitely enjoyed it for the horror writing alone. While the rest of the stories didn't necessarily strike me as especially outstanding in the horror or literary fields, they were all a decidely interesting read. After finishing The Trees Grew Because I Bled Here, I feel the time reading the book was time spent entertained and spent well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Alcohol
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
switched from a digital edition to an audio edition
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
I feel that a line towards the end of the book "I wonder who the real cannibals are," is the theme that the author tried and failed to capture throughout We Eat Our Own. Upon starting this book, I expected either a horror novel, a reflection on the giallo films of the 80s (whether an appreciation or a condemnation), or a delving into the psychology that may have led to the creation of "Cannibal Holocaust" - the real world film in whose influence this novel absolutely bathes. Instead of any of those, I feel I got half-commitments to all + a smattering of vague commentary about the violence humanity is capable of. The book rambles through many characters without settling on anything of importance (focusing on the pettiest characteristics of Adrian and Irena most of all for no reason I can discern) instead of delving into the rich, challenging topics that are right there. The director, Ugo Velluto, is a caricature of an "artiste," dedicated to his craft at the cost of everyone else working on the film; Adrian White, the main character, is a low-grade copy of a copy of the Deadbeat Boyfriend/Struggling Actor trope; and Irena (the manic pixie dream girl love interest that is so on the nose as to be exhausting) is impossible to comprehend - even to herself as it is stated in the novel. Her actions have no understandable motive other than perhaps to feed a bottomless pit of desire for attention from anyone at all (which has little to no bearing on the main narrative other than to serve as a "call back" when she is a character that has met all the others in one of the final scenes). Her repeated attempts to satisfy the desire quickly make one feel as if they are listening to the shrill, repeating, and grating cries of a baby bird wanting to be fed - but without the feelings of empathy or pity that usually follow.
This is a novel I was so excited for and so dissapointed by that I feel maybe I'm missing something that - once realized - suddenly makes the entire thing make sense. I sincerely hope to have that realization in the future.
This is a novel I was so excited for and so dissapointed by that I feel maybe I'm missing something that - once realized - suddenly makes the entire thing make sense. I sincerely hope to have that realization in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexual violence
I just don't vibe with the authors writing, I guess. This is the second book I've tried reading from her.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War
Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, Pregnancy, Classism
Minor: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail
The book was plodding (literally and figuratively). I enjoyed the hiking bit well enough, but I remember checking the page count when just Dom and Luke were left alive in the group and thinking "what is possibly going to happen for another 200 pages?” The first half of the book was fairly well paced and decently disturbing. The second half should have just been a new book - I had absolutely no desire to go on another plodding journey within the same narrative.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Honestly? The Asylum Confessions just wasn't a very scary - let alone interesting - book. The author chose to write a book about asylum patients that have done especially horrendous things, but then redacts much of the inmates' "confessions," leaving the reader with a general sense of ick without ever knowing why these inmates are supposedly the worst of the worst. The second inmate seemed to be based on "Ken" of the real life Ken and Barbie killers. The author took a horrifying (but gripping) tragedy and somehow made it boring while keeping all the despondence one feels when reading about tragedy. At its best, The Asylum left me bored. At its worst, it left me bored and in a bad mood.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Rape, Cannibalism, Murder