Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

To Be Devoured by Sara Tantlinger

29 reviews

kayla0530's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I’ll be thinking about this for a while. I’m searching for every book that has vore or romantic cannibalism in it and this came highly recommended to me. It’s beautiful and tragic at the same time and almost made me feel the way I felt when I read exquisite corpse the first time. I do wish certain scenes were more descriptive but that’s just me being a creep. I read this book once and am already thinking of getting a tattoo based off it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Murder

allthingseryn's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Murder

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective fast-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

4.5

If Fight Club and Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke had a baby, it would be this book.

I think the synopsis of this book is both misleading and too direct. Here's a better summary of the basic plot:

This book is about a troubled young woman who develops and deep fascination with vultures that turns into an obsession. This story follows her as she becomes more and more unhinged.

This book is very different and I loved it way more than I expected to. The reason I enjoyed it so much is that the writing itself is very good. The subject matter is macabre and even quite gross at times but it's written in a way that's so poetic (in a similar way to how the writing in fight club is interesting).

Would I recommend this book? Not to everyone. It's definitely a weird book and I know many people would find it offputting. But if you're looking for something unique, poetic, and enjoy a semi-unreliable narrarator that becomes more unhinged as the story goes on, this is a good one for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit and Cannibalism

Minor: Infidelity

Our MC breaks into the neighbours barn and kills and eats a baby piglet raw. Then throws it up later. This scene is both sad because it's a poor animal, but also it's gross.

There's one fairly explicit sex scene between two women.

Our MC shoots her neighbour, killing him, then cuts him up to feed him to the vultures.

The MC eats raw and rotten meat.

theliteraryhooker's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

This remains one of my top 5 favourite books. The writing is so, so, SO GOOD! Equal parts beautiful and disgusting, with scenes that were still burned into my memory from my first read back in 2019. This book is just a horrifying and gorgeously written descent into madness, and I devoured (get it?) every word.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia and Racism

skienight's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

booksnbones13's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

stunning novella. great horror 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

0ogazanami's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction and Body horror

Minor: Child death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

brainbread's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

1.75

it was a kinda fun read ngl, but it was really short. sometimes it felt like things were missing and the pacing would feel a bit rushed, but it is less than 100 pages and that can all be boiled down to the unreliable narrator but even that feels like a cop out. there is a lot of /I'm just gonna tell you what happened/. honestly, it felt like if you took the sentences and made it bullet points it would read in the exact same way as the book did. that is to say, it feels like plot points were listed and the important bits are randomly added on to make the story make sense while not having any real footing. it felt like it needed to be expanded upon greatly, which makes sense since it is less than 100 pages

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

possible tws: if you like animals, then I'd say maybe be cautious of this book. similarly, there is violence against a poc character initiated by the white, main character so if that may be troubling to you, maybe avoid this book

hayleyw's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual harassment

keddy4306's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

HAHAHA only read this to induce vomiting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting