Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Walking Practice by Dolki Min

12 reviews

akizato's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-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

2.0

I liked the overarching exploration of gender and living with invisible disability but man the pacing really ruined this for me. We spend pages upon pages of the main character waxing lyrical on various topics (the female presentation stuff felt very early 2000s feminism) while doing the same thing over and over, and then at the last minute

they get beaten to near death for some unexplained reason, spend a millisecond recovering, and then, after a sex scene that is as close to rape as it can get without being there, the main character is murdered by their assailant. The queer allegory character goes cruising and gets assaulted and then murdered.

What was the point? I get that it's horror and that doesn't usually have a happy ending, but this went literally nowhere. The character didn't grow or change, and the ending didn't seem particularly earned after the drudgery of what came before. I put up with a heavier amount of gore and sex scenes that were basically also gore in how viscerally they were described, and for what??

This felt like a first draft that could do with some expansion to explore the more interesting parts. 

I will praise the translation though, which is part of the reason it even gets 2 stars. Representing the exhaustion and alien-ness with the font getting all weird was really well done, it's a really good translation!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, and Hate crime

Minor: Excrement and Sexual harassment

bateleanor's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

Amazing. Disturbing. Beautiful. Horrifying. Relatable in the worst ways. Visceral. Tangible. Philosophical and heartbreaking. I am recommending this book to all my strangest friends. I think we will understand it better together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Excrement, Vomit, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

melliedm's review against another edition

dark funny reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

What's all this nonsense, you say? Just think of it as the ramblings of a life-form pretending to be human. It won't be that important to you, dear reader.

A strange, intensely evocative novel about the sensation of being alien to the society you live in, discussing concepts like masking, isolation, anxiety, and desire in a package equally relatable and…well, alien. 

Maybe it’s just the autistic, chronically ill, queer in me—but yeah. This one hit home.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Gore, Hate crime, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Fatphobia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Excrement, and Dysphoria

ethnographchic's review against another edition

challenging dark funny fast-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? No

4.25

This book is disgusting in a way that only queer science fiction can manage to be. Its vivid descriptions of body horror made me physically recoil, at the same time I found myself delighting in some moments of the narrator playing jury judge and executioner. There are a lot of angles this book can be examined and it is if nothing else very interesting. I do think some of the poignancy and existential musings does get overshadowed by the ridiculously vivid depravity.  Personally I don’t really like sci-fi or super violent books, but despite that I got through this very quickly and would recommend to anyone who wants something a little off beat 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, and Murder

applesodaperson's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

This book came highly recommended, and yeah it lived up to the hype. It was such an interesting commentary of society within such a weird framework. I loved the part talking about gender assumptions. And I also loved the part about how people judge those that don't walk the same as them, which was such a good commentary about ableism, accessibility, and the way society treats those with disabilities. I also highly highly recommend listening to this book in an audiobook form. The narrator did such a good job and really makes it feel like an alien is saying all the things in the book. 
Listened to on Libby.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Hate crime

kaiyakaiyo's review

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

buying this in print both because it was lovely and because my ereader did not do the art justice! 

wow! what can i say. such a fresh premise, the narrative voice was so refreshing, i don’t think I’ve ever read a book anything like this. if you have, PLEASE recommend! favorite book this year i think

unapologetically queer and making very interesting points about who this world is designed for both physically and in a more abstract sense. definitely graphic and gory but that takes a surprising backseat to the emotions of the main char. idk this book was just great and a lovely opener for Halloween month.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Hate crime, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail

katieconrad's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

Minor: Grief

spacecars's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

storyorc's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

There is a sick delight in reading something that actually manages to express the depths of how disgusting it can feel to wear a human body: "I feel like a food waste bag dripping its rotten soup." One of many visceral descriptions. The typography tricks are a great way to echo the melting human form too.

Mumu, the grotesque alien predator, is absurdly relatable - the perpetual battle to 'disarm' the body so it behaves, pride in hard-earned tips and tricks for presenting feminine, even just the slow torture of existing on a subway each day. It was brave of Min to put this out here so nakedly.
 
The ending is

inevitable and heart-rendering

but also came at the right moment for the novella not to overstay its welcome. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Sexual violence

Moderate: Sexism

sleaterkenneth's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-paced

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

5.0

gender.............

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Sexual violence, and Cannibalism