Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Ruins by Scott Smith

11 reviews

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Horror Summer Camp Book Club / June Pick

The Details:
Narrated by Patrick Wilson
Unabridged 

I really wanted to take part in this group read so for the first time, I purchased more credits!

This was a fun read. Once we got into the meat of the horror, it had me in mind of the Day of the Triffids. I think I'd be interested in reading more plant based horror.

The body horror was quite grim (in a good way), but I didn't find that it made my stomach turn or had me feeling nauseated.

There were no distinct chapters, which made it hard to pause but helped to amplify the blurred lines of time as terror set in for the characters.

The characters themselves weren't very likeable but felt believable for the most part, though some feeling more 2D (or more caricatures of a person) than others. I think my favourites were Matthias and Pablo.

I don't think this will be a strong story that would be very memorable long term, for me, but it was fun for whilst I was listening, I'd recommend it to others and I'd be interested in giving the movie adaptation a go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Torture, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Gore, Gaslighting, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Suicide, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Grief, Cannibalism, Body horror, and Abandonment

Minor: Cannibalism

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Okay maybe I just don’t love horror novels, and that makes me sad. I love love love, like live and die for, horror films. It could arguably be stated that they’re my whole personality. But I have yet to ever be blown away by a horror novel and this was supposed to be the one. It’s just….. meh. The characters are one dimensional and I constantly got them confused because they’re all the same person. And they’re stupid? If one of these stereotypically dumb girls acts stereotypically dumb one more time i swear to god. The ending was the best part and this book was far too long for that to be the only part I liked. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

bccorrea's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

1.0

Do you like being stressed out about lost in a jungle kind of book? Oh boy do we have the book for you. The book is actually well written. But there are a lot of weird parts that made me go well I can't wait to be rid of it. I hated as a Latina reading about descriptions of Mexico from a WASP perspective. Parts of the text made me feel hated and gross. Take that as you can. The horror is there, but there is also a certain amount of inevitable predictability. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Car accident, Classism, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexism, Self harm, Suicide, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Excrement, Death, Cursing, Blood, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

kdrupp's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Loved the concept for the plot. Realized half way through that this was going to be a more character driven story than it is a mystery about what is actually going on, as the majority of the story is about how these 6 characters interact with eachother during a life or death survival situation.

Spoiler

I did like how it's never revealed what the plant is or how it got there, leaving the audience to assume it's something that's always been here, spreading its malice to whoever happens to step foot in it's home.

The main thing that dropped the rating for me is how the two female characters are written - they're written with no personality to the point that the only distinguishing factor between them is that one of them is more promiscuous. This was a huge turnoff for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Alcohol, Cursing, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, and Blood

Minor: Cannibalism

kermit_the_wrong's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Gore, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Excrement, Blood, Cursing, Infidelity, and Self harm

Moderate: Cannibalism

elisweets's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I personally loved this book. It was one of my favorite horror film when I was a kid and I never knew it was a book until I stumbled upon it in a Savers!! So I was so excited to read. 
I felt like it was slow in the beginning, especially coming from watching it as a quicker film, but it was so interesting really learning about the characters traits in more detail and hear them explain these horrific experiences their going through. The characters are… interesting, but I thought were written well for their rolls. Like the way the all handle this situation is super interesting and sometimes sad.

Overall I think it’s a great read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Gore, Self harm, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Cannibalism, Child death, and Excrement

taylorlanxon's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Torture, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Death, Dysphoria, and Medical content

shannanigans92's review

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Self harm, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Infidelity, and Vomit

Minor: Cannibalism

bookedrightmeow's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

PHEW what a ride this book is. Horror fans will love this one but I think everyone else won't be able to finish it. There's some really riveting, suspenseful writing here--I truly didn't want to put the book down until I found out how it ended. But there's A LOT of gore, specifically body horror, so reader be warned. Content warnings galore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit

effys's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

This book was a truly incredible read, it took me a while to get through but not in a way that felt really slow but more like I was savouring it. I watched the movie when I was a teenager and didn’t know it was based on a book so I was really curious to read the book it was based on after having enjoyed the film so much and it was even more incredible as the description in this book is powerful and amazing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Suicide