Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Cows by Matthew Stokoe

73 reviews

elderlyemo's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

After sitting with this one for a while, I upped my rating to a three star because this book is definitely a little bit different from the other books it often finds itself compared to. 

First of all - it is well written, and does contain within it some really interesting reflections on power, nuclear family, social isolation, self worth and mental health. Steven is a very interesting character who whilst being a bit simple in practice, comes off as compelling in the prose. 

Having said that, the quality of the writing makes me feel like the author could have written a much better book. The worst parts of this book - in terms of physical repulsion - are at the beginning and it does slow down into a more manageably disgusting book towards the end (right around where the titular cows start to really impact the narrative) is it still unrelenting and gross? Yes, but I don't think it's necessarily without merit. 

This definitely isn't a book for everyone, but I read it in one sitting and annotated quite a lot of it which is usually an indication to me and my own depraved mind that I am getting *something* out of it. What did I get out of Cows? I don't know. But it was something. 

I think how popular this book got led to its own downfall and I see it a lot on the Most Disturbing Books of All Time lists - which it totally should be - but I think the absolute lunacy of this story makes it wholly less disturbing. 

I'm looking forward to reading more from this author in the future because genuinely - it could be about literally anything. Solid three stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, Violence, Vomit, and Abortion

marisowl's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Just messed up. The gorefest and the disturbing violence I can handle, but the worst thing for me definitely was the mother-son relationship depicted. Please don't think I'm recommending it, but it's not bad. Please look up the trigger warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

kingnixon's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

sylvermoon's review

dark medium-paced

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

1.5

Basically splatterpunk. Didn’t enjoy it at all, and not even for gore / similar reasons. Cows speaking and the slaughterhouse environment were so ridiculous. I would have DNF, except I don’t ever do that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

arsene_reads's review

challenging dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Vomit, Abortion, and Murder

jocelyn73c's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.0

I'm not a big splatterpunk reader. Extreme gore is not really my thing. This book really pushed a lot of my boundaries, but that being said I thought the writing was good and there was an actual message about male isolation and dominance over others that I thought was well illustrated. I won't ever read it again, but I'm not mad I read it this one time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

This is a splatterpunk book and probably should not be read by someone who isn't familiar with the genre. It's very graphic and challenging.

spphynx's review

challenging dark fast-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

5.0

Absolutely the worst and best book I’ve read so far this year. Very challenging. I mean, really wow, what the fuck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Rape, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, and Abortion

laboromi's review

dark sad fast-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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

katiefloyd's review

challenging dark sad

1.0

Disgusting, vile, made me wanna puke. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Abortion

siochaile's review

challenging dark fast-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

2.75

This is definiyely a splattergore book, and one of the more extreme ones. If you enjoy books like Woom or Playground, this will be right up your alley. 

I, personally, felt kind of icky reading this, only because there was so much scat involved, and there's no real character development of our MC (not the point, I know) but I came away from this book happy that it was over, with no intention of picking up splattergore again. There's also a very graphic description of the love interest cutting an unborn fetus from her body, and it was the only emotionally resonant moment in the whole book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship

He fucks a cow