Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Walking Practice by Dolki Min

19 reviews

akizato's review against another edition

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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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bateleanor's review against another edition

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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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mar's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

while it works really well within the story, the visceral, graphic grotesqueness just wasn't my thing; definitely my shortcoming, not the book's. still, i loved the way the author & translator play with the form, and the exploration of transness and disability really hit home

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samgray's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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biobeetle's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense 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

4.0


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shellan's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • 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

4.25


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melliedm's review against another edition

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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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beanotbeah's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

Absolutely brilliant, gross, visceral, weird, sexy sci-fi! Super strong narrator voice and unique text stylization. A fascinating explanation of humanity, monstrosity, and the overlap between the two, all with a deliciously queer perspective. Highly recommend!!!

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catandherbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous funny reflective fast-paced

4.5

What a book. What a book!!! Might just have found me a life favorite. Humorous and heartfelt, it's a book I desperately want to give a proper review to, but I can't right now, and maybe I shouldn't anyway because it really is best if you go into it knowing as little as possible. It's so much more than it seems and it surprised me in the most positive of ways. Just what I was looking for. 

Loved the audiobook and narrator! Love the
translator's note
at the end as well (not sure if this counts as a spoiler so I'll mark it as such just in case).

Need a physical copy so bad! 

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signeskov's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.25


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