Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor

11 reviews

kimothay's review

dark emotional sad 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

4.0

This is my first Brandon Taylor read! Short story collections are usually not my favorite because I very much need detailed, direct character development to thoroughly get invested in a story. However, I enjoyed many of the stories in this collection and I’m interested to read more of Taylor’s work. This is definitely a dark read with lots of content/trigger warnings; however, since the main theme of the book is how humans seek connection but resort to violence, it was to be expected. I would have liked to see more character development or addressing of core problems, but overall, I enjoyed the collection. The standout for me was Anne of Cleves. 

Potluck: 4/5

Little Beast: 4/5

Flesh: 3.5/5

As Though That Were Love: 3.5/5

Proctoring: 4/5

Filthy Animals: 3/5

Mass: 2.5/5 

Anne of Cleves: 4.5/5 

Apartment: 3/5 

What Made Them Made You: 4/5

Meat: 3/5 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Grief, and Outing

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

raoulalexander's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

the best short story collection I've read so far

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

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

lumoon33's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

writing short stories and making each one of them engaging is really fucking difficult. brandon taylor's writing is so beautiful that it has you sticking around even when you don't feel that much for characters you didn't know three pages ago. but suddenly, 5 pages into a new short story you're already invested. i loved lionel and im really glad he's the one character that got more than one story. it is true that some of these chapters felt unfinished, but i think that made sense with the plot and the intention of this book—after all, we're just getting a few glimpses into these people's lives, we're not staying. i can't give it 5 stars simply because i had to skip the two stories that dealt with cancer and terminal illnesses, i would've appreciated a warning. i loved loved loved this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Violence

amye's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Racism, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Drug use, and Pedophilia

leekaufman's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Terminal illness

annuich's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Murder

pippyv's review

dark sad medium-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

3.0

Fun main story but the other short stories detracted heavily. The descriptions of the gay women in the one story they featured in, while not entirely inaccurate, were generic and lifeless compared with the standard set by male characters of any sexuality in the rest of the book and overall it was a bit insultingly lazy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Excrement, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

deedireads's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Filthy Animals is, as we expect from Brandon Taylor, a masterful collection of stories; I especially loved the linked ones. This book more than lives up to the hype.

For you if: You like queer short stories and excellent character-driven writing.

FULL REVIEW:

First, thank you to Riverhead for granting me a review copy of this collection on NetGalley! Filthy Animals is one of the most anticipated books of the year, and it absolutely lives up to the hype.

The collection opens with a story about a man named Lionel, who has hit a particularly difficult point in his life, and who meets two dancers in an open relationship at a friend’s potluck dinner. Every alternating story in the collection returns to these three characters, which, strung together, could have even become a novella. I really liked this format, the promise that we will come back and learn more about them, return to the near-tangible tension between them, see what happens next. But all the other stories in the collection are incredible, too, as one would expect from Brandon Taylor.

I feel, now, that I could recognize Taylor’s writing anywhere, just by the level of detail he includes on every page. His writing zooms in on practically everything, which draws meaning and poignancy out of the otherwise mundane. Reading his stories, I feel like I could be an ant inside them, viewing every surface, every facial expression, every moment from close up. And then he zooms out when it comes to dialogue, letting every word ring and echo in hollow space. The result is both quiet and loud.

This is one of those books where I think the back-cover blurb is especially on the nose: “Psychologically taut and quietly devastating,” and “a tender portrait of the fierce longing for intimacy, the lingering presence of pain, and the desire for love in a world that seems, more often than not, to withhold it.” I really can’t sum it up any better than that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Rape

Minor: Pedophilia, Racism, and Terminal illness