Reviews

Depraved by Bryan Smith

theseriouscuttlefish's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

martianscuba's review against another edition

1.0

Ehhhh. Definitely a story that I expected to enjoy a lot more. The obsession with sex/rape in damn near every chapter makes it drag and ruins all logic. Laughably bad in some cases.

The writing is fluid and the chapter format was great. Bryan Smith is very talented and the setup for the second book sounds interesting enough that I might come back, but this one was kind of a mess.

mlang's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

shrikebait's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

I picked this book up based on the gnarly cover and was not disappointed. Depraved felt like watching a gory horror movie with just about all of the "classic" extreme horror tropes. 

It was interesting seeing how each character evolves as they commit heinous acts to survive. I usually don't like "where are they now"- type epilogues, but this one is an exception. It really hammers in the lingering, irreversible effects of that dark day. 

As with all extreme horror, heed content warnings. Depraved is especially heavy on SA. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

joanneburns's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.75

tiannahreads's review against another edition

4.5

This was definitely depraved in all different manners. The author takes you on a journey with a few different individuals that happened upon the wrong little town off the beaten path. I felt like it kept the story really well paced and helped to keep my interest the whole time. 

The narration was great. This was my first read by this author, & I definitely want to check out the rest of the books in this series in the future! 

punkersfictionreads's review against another edition

Dnf 30% in

bibliograflieg's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This was... brutal. (Duh, it's splatterpunk; what am I talking about?) This is honestly not my type of book, but I think that Bryan Smith did a really good job getting into each character's head, which made the whole book even more disturbing. He also wove the interlocking stories together really well (even though I fully didn't realize that the Prestons and Maynards were different clans and that Michelle and Justine were different people for over half of the book - that was honestly my fault for not paying attention and speeding the audiobook up too much and not the fault of Smith's craftsmanship). This was gross, which was the point, but there was an attention to craft that I really respected. This was incredibly difficult to rate because it's not my preferred subgenre, but here is my attempt.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Incest, and Infertility

beefmaster's review against another edition

4.0

Hardcore

lucasm12333's review

5.0

Wow

This book surpassed all of my expectations. I was expecting the generic gory hardcore horror with a cliche storyline.

Not here. The author kept the pace at warp speed and really fleshed out the characters. There was plenty of Gore but it fit the story. Some authors just seem to add Gore to shock readers, and cover a stale story. Not Bryan Smith! This is horror done right. Fantastic!