Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

49 reviews

cberbette's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Transphobia and Suicide attempt

melm1216's review against another edition

dark 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

I was on board for the first bit. Felt very Breaking Bad so of course I kept going. The book was just, weird? There were lots of untranslated Spanish sections that I attempted to translate and then just hoped it wasn’t necessary. I was not expecting a splattery, Christianity-inspired horror novel but that’s on me for not reading the fine print I guess and the ending happened so quick it was almost anti-climactic. I also didn’t really get the motivation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

tyler_j's review against another edition

This is a great book from what I read. DNF 108 pages.

This DNF has nothing against this book itself. The reason I can't finish it is highly personal.

I wish I could finish this book. It truly seems amazing and I believe if I could finish it i'd give it 5 stars. But I can't.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death and Death

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This story is not for the faint-hearted because there are some very brutal incidents involving injury, murder, death, abuse, drug use. Set primarily in Texas in a world of violent crime and desperation, the main character, Mario, is still reeling from the death of his young daughter and the breakdown of his marriage. The author nimbly weaves a number of serious social issues throughout his book, with one in particular being the way health care costs in the United States can bankrupt people and take them to a very low point in their life.

Looking for a way to recover financial stability and win back his estranged wife, Mario embarks on a life of crime he sees as short term. An opportunity becomes available for Mario to join two friends for a high-paying job that promises to be the payday they all need to start over and leave behind their criminal pasts. Unfortunately, this last job takes them into the underbelly of a world where the strong survive eliminating rivals and punishing traitors, and in this world, spirituality harnesses not just God, but the Devil too.

Really well-written story and a good translation. The assorted people and various landscapes of their environments felt visceral and real. In a lot of books and movies, criminals and the poor are portrayed in a one-dimensional way, but in this book, the characters possess great intelligence and depth, and the reader may likely be exposed to a harsh reality that many people experience but many more are insulated from by virtue of their skin color, neighborhood, lineage, and sometimes just luck.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration by Jean-Marc Berne was excellent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical content, and Alcohol

_meeg's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Torture, and Abandonment

vtleon715's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

_astronomay's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, and Blood

ate_nina_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

This book is not for the faint of heart!! Graphic and gory and overall disturbing, this is not a light read. Nevertheless, it is beautifully written with both poetic prose and highly sympathetic insights into one grieving and deeply troubled man's psyche (a tall feat, considering the acts that this man commits throughout the book).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

alek_n's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, and Torture

shawnthulhu's review against another edition

<Spoiler> I just can't get past them torturing a child for religious gain...written in detail. I get there is likely metaphor there. But that was hard to read and it made me feel too uncomfortable and I wasn't prepared for it in any way. Read the trigger warnings before you pick this one up so you know what you're getting into.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism