Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor

19 reviews

annmariebrok's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Outing

reb_knits's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

4.25

The structure got a little confusing but I loved the idea — having short stories that alternate between a central character and stories of related and unrelated other characters that enrich the themes of the main character 

Definitely excited to read more from this author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

loganmedrano's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Pedophilia

changelingreader_adrian's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, and Death of parent

smolfrog's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny, and Sexism

sydapel's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

3.75

I enjoyed this a lot more than 'Real Life', though I'm skeptical if the 'interconnected short story' format worked for me, at least in audiobook form. It makes the story at the core, and thereby the story I was most invested in, feel disjointed and a little less developed in comparison. Despite this, the emotional heart in each of the stories is deeply felt, always centering a craving for intimacy or something past or future that seems too far to grasp. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Excrement, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

daffodildyke's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? It's complicated

2.75

“the origin of his desire to forgo meat wasn’t environmental or even about the animals really. it was selfish. because the thought of consuming dead things, when he had been so close to dying, when he had wanted to die… was too much”

I think it is very clear that the author can lovingly and realistically create characters, especially queer characters. I think the intimacy created in some of the sex scenes was very palpable and authentic, even if I didn’t personally enjoy some of them or understand what we were getting at with others. 

I particularly liked parts of the exploration of polyamory with Lionel, Charles and Sophie - I liked that it was natural and normalised, and I feel like it had so much potential

but I feel like the moment Sophie asks Lionel to thank her for letting him sleep with Charles, that ruins a lot of the positives of their story. I think it lazily plays into stereotypical understandings of polyamory, and was entirely unnecessary. The way Sophie asks Charles to tell her about his other sexual partners is one thing - as this is done as part of what Sophie enjoys, this is something that excites her - but this weirdly out of character assertion of ownership goes against everything healthy polyamory should be!

 

I found the shortness of some stories jarring when others continued across multiple segments or chapters, and it left me wanting to know more about some of the stories, whilst also somewhat wishing it had just focused on one. I feel like Lionel was very much the character I got to know most, and I am not complaining about that, but it definitely felt unbalanced… which maybe was intentional. I think Lionel, Charles and Sophie could have been the focus of a whole novel and their domination of the collection takes away from some of the other incredibly poignant tales Taylor tells.

As an ace-spec person, maybe reading a book that largely centres on desire and sex was asking for me not to wholeheartedly enjoy it, but alas, the actual sex scenes were probably the most interesting parts of it for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Blood, Medical content, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

samarakroeger's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I loved the Lionel/Charles/Sophie stories — and the structure of the collection meant I was invested in reading the book the whole way through. a few of the other random stories I didn’t really get into very much, but I really liked Anne of Cleves. 

I will read anything Brandon Taylor writes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Outing

anawest's review

dark emotional tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Cancer, and Homophobia

marjoleinvanderspoel's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Brandon Taylor continues to prove his immense skill with this collection of short stories unlike any other such collection I've read. With this collection Taylor proves his breadth as a story teller by branching into many different kinds of lives, whilst maintaining an atmosphere that keeps the collection coherent. The incorporation of an overarching or recurring story about Lionel, Charles and Sophie was cleverly done, and the story itself was wonderfully complex and compelling, reminiscent of Real Life in it's dealing with mental health and academia, something that I appreciated enormously in his debut. In addition I greatly enjoyed "as if that were love" and perhaps my favourite story, "anne of cleves". I only wish we would have gotten a story from Sophie's perspective as I found her to be a much more interesting character than Charles. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Misogyny, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, and Domestic abuse