Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Hunger - Die letzte Reise by Michael Pfingstl, Alma Katsu

39 reviews

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Outing, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia, Medical content, and War

cvab's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.25

While a bit slow to get into (things started to amp up about 100 pages in), this was a very fun read. I'm not usually one for historical texts, but I can tell the author put a lot of care and passion into research for this novel. Piecing the story together through various characters' accounts made me feel as though I was a part of the wagon train myself, trying to figure out what was going on. The "big bad" is a very interesting premise, but I don't dare say more for fear of spoiling things. Great read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Any and all sexual themes here (

rape, incest

) are used for horror purposes and not glorified or romanticized.

juliatindell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I really enjoyed this book! It’s been on my mind in a big way since I finished it. This would be great for folks who enjoy historical speculative horror! It’s very creepy and mysterious, but wasn’t as disgusting as I worried it would be. Check the content warnings!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Murder, Outing, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Incest

randeerebecca's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Murder, and Abandonment

nnelsonaut's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

5.0

Not for the faint of heart, but a fascinating and imaginative retelling of the Donner Party. If you know that history, you'll *technically* know how it ends, but the way Katsu gets there, her answer to "how?" is quite compelling and twisty. And suitably horrific. She's a marvellous writer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, and Cannibalism

thegayestghost's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

phantomgecko's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Gruesome twist on a true story. I'm not overly acquainted with the true story, so I don't feel like I was able to appreciate this book as much as perhaps I could have.

Adding a wendigo vibe to a tale of cannibalism isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it was still interesting. I don't feel like all the questions were answered sufficiently. Specifically I feel the part of the story with Edwin Bryant felt unfinished. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Cannibalism, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

esterie's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

well, there's an interesting story in here somewhere, i guess.

first off, i think historical fiction based on real events, involving real people, really isn't my cup of tea. the fictionalization of real people struck me as kind of.... dehumanizing. as netti90 said in their review (oh how i wish we could like reviews on here!): "I think it just weirds me out when real people are fictionalized because they actually existed."

tamsen being in love with her brother and being a "witch", a tryst between reed and snyder, the romance between stanton and mary

... these were real people, and man.... that just don't sit right with me treating them like characters.

second, the pacing was not great. a fair few great horror elements early on, with large swathes of boring droll in between and unnecessary "backstory" for certain characters, some of which served the narrative literally not at all. after reading up on the true account of the donner party whilst reading this, there's really no reason a book about their journey, even a fictionalized horror book, should be boring. but it was. i kept looking at my percentage read and feeling the sunk cost fallacy more and more. and the sheer number of "characters"! i take notes while reading (memory issues) and even then i kept having to search the book for names thinking 'who tf are you???'. keeping track of who was who, who was married into certain families, who was hired help, etc. was tedious. i know the donner party was large, but damn i felt like didn't know half these people when they were mentioned, they were integrated into the story so poorly.

how i imagined the story to go, before i started, would be to follow a fictional family on this journey, and their observations of the events. i think that would have fit so much better. OR, take this concept of a blood-born disease that fills one with an insatiable rage and hunger, and center it on a (fictional!!!) pioneer family. 10 people max. something stalking outside their cabin, cattle going missing, people acting weird, getting sick. all much smaller scale, but i think it would have been so so SO much more effective!!!

on the horror element btw, i was expecting it to be more of a skinwalker story. one very vicious malevolent entity sneaking into the group, changing appearance, sowing chaos. instead it was an.....

infectious.... rabid..... werewolf?

..... situation. hmm. okay then. the lil bit of gore there was, was good, very visceral and graphic, but just not.... quite what i hoped.

some plot points were just left up in the air? when

elitha started hearing whispers

i thought "oh like those native american stories, this is gonna spread amongst the group!" but no. she's just special like that i guess.

at least from this i heard about "The Indifferent Stars Above", which i've promptly added to my tbr. still jonesing for a good skinwalker horror story, unfortunately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Cannibalism

narbine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicide, Pregnancy, and War

glassflowrr's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Solid story with some amazing moments of terror and gore. I really enjoyed the pacing. There are a few too many POV characters to keep track of and some aren't very well-developed as voices, but the good ones are very interesting to be with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment