Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Walking Practice by Dolki Min

47 reviews

akizato's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-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

2.0

I liked the overarching exploration of gender and living with invisible disability but man the pacing really ruined this for me. We spend pages upon pages of the main character waxing lyrical on various topics (the female presentation stuff felt very early 2000s feminism) while doing the same thing over and over, and then at the last minute

they get beaten to near death for some unexplained reason, spend a millisecond recovering, and then, after a sex scene that is as close to rape as it can get without being there, the main character is murdered by their assailant. The queer allegory character goes cruising and gets assaulted and then murdered.

What was the point? I get that it's horror and that doesn't usually have a happy ending, but this went literally nowhere. The character didn't grow or change, and the ending didn't seem particularly earned after the drudgery of what came before. I put up with a heavier amount of gore and sex scenes that were basically also gore in how viscerally they were described, and for what??

This felt like a first draft that could do with some expansion to explore the more interesting parts. 

I will praise the translation though, which is part of the reason it even gets 2 stars. Representing the exhaustion and alien-ness with the font getting all weird was really well done, it's a really good translation!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, and Hate crime

Minor: Excrement and Sexual harassment

mar's review

dark funny reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

while it works really well within the story, the visceral, graphic grotesqueness just wasn't my thing; definitely my shortcoming, not the book's. still, i loved the way the author & translator play with the form, and the exploration of transness and disability really hit home

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia, Hate crime, and Excrement

samgray's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

jrmar739's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

orinthebard's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

While the extraterrestrial main character's actions are often reprehensible to the human mind (seducing people into a false sense of safety then eating their heads like a preying mantis, etc), Dolki Min's detailed descriptions of being forced to expend most of one's energy masking as a typical human for survival were extremely relatable to me as a trans autistic person. There's something to be said about how we can become monsters in our attempt to avoid being seen as monsters by a prejudiced society, forced to turn to manipulation by our isolation. This was also so, so funny at parts, partially thanks to the audiobook reader Nicky Edres's choices. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Cannibalism, and Murder

amme's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

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

3.25

Found the book to be both fun and grotesque. The way the author used the alien to discuss social anxiety, dating, loneliness, and gender identity was very compelling.
Where the book lost me was the glaring fatphobia from the alien. It felt incredibly disjointed coming from the same alien that has been spouting critiques on our societal structures for the entire book.

If you can't do gore, skip this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Ableism and Cannibalism

rosie_valadez's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Transphobia, and Blood

Minor: Cannibalism

messymimms's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

“Have you gotten the gist of what I look like? I am a being that always requires friendly explanation. If I do not explain, no one understands me. […] You are the default life form. You are the centre of the universe. It must be so0O0o0O0o0O0o nice.” 

This was an oddly fun and grotesque book, which I felt peaked pretty early on. 

The main character goes on a lot of tangents, some of which are funny, poignant or philosophical. Many just didn’t hit for me, and as a result it ended feeling a bit disjointed. 

The concept of an alien struggling with earth gravity and relying on the bodies of strangers to survive was evocative, and the parallels with themes of queer and trans belonging felt obvious and important. I only wish there had been more about disability. 

Something that took me aback was a fat woman being described as a rhinoceros, and then an elephant. For a creature who critically analyses Earth beauty standards, that seemed a strange choice. The portrayal was sloppy; fatphobic and boring. I’m not sure a 340kg alien covered in hair (nor their author) is one to judge. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

a_blue_stocking's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

callme_tippy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

In the realm of reading it is very hard to say "I've never read a book like this" but with Walking Practice I can say it with confidence and I loved every minute of it!

The scene setting, the characterization, the stylistic choices in visuals and writing were all spot on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail