Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

18 reviews

lreeve's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

magnan1mouse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I can't describe how much of a sucker I am for the found family trope. 

I found it to be well-written and while I HATED Nick at some points (for his actions, not how the character was made), 

I'm glad he was good in the end.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, and Cannibalism

foiblesandfiction's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I've been sitting on this review for a couple of weeks because I'm just not sure how I feel about the book.

I loved it.  I also didn't necessarily like it.  And maybe those are two different things, just like we are able to love people without liking them, which makes sense for me because my mind tends to personify all books.  Books have feelings, too.

This story sank it's teeth right into my religious trauma, and the resonating ache from that is why I love this story so.  The character names, the Bible verses, the rules and judgements and negative self-talk.  I felt, I feel, all of that.  It's all very twisty and knotted up in my chest so I won't be able to say very much more than that, to be honest.  Too raw, too messy. 

Forget about the body horror, my issue was the Christians lol

Sorry Christians!  Kind of.

Why I disconnected from this story was due to the writing itself.  It's gorgeous and it's also a lot.  It doesn't read like the first-person point of view of a sixteen year old kid.  Unfortunately, this kept taking me out of the story.

Recommended for fans of Ava Reid.  If, like me, you found yourself highlighting entire paragraphs of The Wolf and the Woodsman, or disturbingly delighted at the cannibalistic horror of Juniper & Thorn, you'll find something to enjoy in this young adult horror novel as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

vulgarboy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This was... a ride. A lot of internal struggles, which were fine in the beginning but quickly lost their magic and became more annoying as the book went on. The concept was interesting, but there wasn't enough of an explanation on how things had gotten so bad so fast. While I don't want to poorly summarize it as a "pseudo-zombie story," that's kind of what it is. Benji is immune and a more advanced form of grace/abomination/infected. There weren't times I was on the edge of my seat. I want to say I enjoyed this book, but I'm not so sure. 

The handling of queer folks, POC, and neurodivergent folks was pretty spot on. Some things were a bit blunt, such as an autistic character having a stim toy being acknowledged for the first time, followed by an immediate "he's autistic" exxplanation. Neopronouns were used, which I haven't seen before. There's a clear amount of care with these characters, but it fell short a few times. Benji's deadname being in the book doesn't sit right with me (a transmasc person), as well as it being used approximately eight times. Yikes. 

All in all, an excessive amount of vomit and gore aside (both of them happening Constantly), I didn't hate my experience. This story sure did happen.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cannibalism

touchegiantsquid's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

3.0

It's brutally violent. There's a lot that's probably going to stay with me for a long time, but please research the content warnings before diving in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

spooderman's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Moderate: Sexual assault, Slavery, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and Lesbophobia

mothman19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Abortion, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Excrement, and Pregnancy

st_ender's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

I will maybe write a coherent review later but for now: I absolutely loved this book. I would change absolutely nothing before the last 5? Maybe 10% of the book. Where the stakes got so high I couldn't see how can a stand alone possibly wrap up without cutting some things short.
So yeah this is for:
-kids who tried to use the pandemic as an excuse to skip mass
-young adults who got out of a religious family and still didn't quite process it
-people with religious trauma who are still religious
-people who equate health with morality and get therapy for it 
-eldest daughters of any genders

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Dysphoria

I listed the tws and thought this needs a little disclaimer. The book is very heavy on violence and body horror. Religious bigotry, genocide, and illness are main themes. BUT I think for the list like this the themes are handled very well- at no point I felt like it's just there for shock value or to add to a list of terrible things. If you are unsure you can DM me, I'm trying to keep this spoiler free.