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vyralvyris's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, and Fatphobia
rat_leoo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
athompson0429's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Self harm, Vomit, and Medical content
dan_tee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Homophobia
kbaker20's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
It starts off with the innocence of a group of boys on an annual camping trip. They are on that cusp of maturity when they are finding who they are and these long held traditions are losing their magic as they progress to the next stage of their lives. Heartbreaking in of itself. Throw in death and isolation and we are facing not just losing belief in Santa, but confronting the harsh reality and cruelty of society, humanity, and life. The boys face these things and each other with no guidance and at the risk of something more horrifying than death.
Probably not a book for the “faint of heart,” lots of body horror with children involved. This is also why I think its horror factor is high. The other reason being it has a factor of relatability in that you either knew that type of kid, were that type of kid, or know the exact moment when you also had to learn those lessons just not in the face of these circumstances. I was on edge the whole book and could not put it down.
Happy reading horror fiends! 👹
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death
skywhales's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, and Gore
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, and Violence
hautemessreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book is one of those. I am an avid horror novel enthusiast, and I've read some rough things. But I have never read a horror novel that worms it's way inside you quite so vividly. Giving this book five stars was both difficult to do, and also a no-brainer. I think those of you who have read it will understand that dilemma.
We start with a Scout Master and his troop of boy scouts, who have gone to an island for a wilderness trip. A sick man shows up, unexpectedly to the island. What happens next is so true to human nature, so disturbing, so downright realistically written that I struggle to write about it. You'll see.
Cutter does such a phenomenal job building this corner of the world. The characters are so vivid, I could have sworn I was another scout on the trip, a friend, sharing this same heart-wrenching experience.
There are so many things I could say about this novel. Because of that, I'll say less. This is a novel that is so 3D, so real, that you will squeeze your eyes shut to avoid seeing what they're seeing, you'll feel hunger pangs and the immediate nausea that comes from them, you probably won't feel comfortable eating during most of it. **Please, as always, check the TWs before reading.** I don't have many, and there were moments I considered setting it aside. I'm glad I didn't. I'm glad to have known the boys of Troop 52, and I'm glad that you're here, considering knowing them, too.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Fatphobia, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
woolfian's review against another edition
I stopped reading at about 60% at which point one of the characters graphically tortures and murders a kitten. I don’t mind reading difficult books about difficult people, but I don’t like reading books that have cruelty for the sake of cruelty with effectively zero character development, which is basically what this was. Even without this, I would have rated the book low for the following reasons.
There's a fine line between being descriptive enough to convey a rich mental image and being so packed with metaphor it becomes distracting. I found Cutter's writing to fall solidly in the latter camp. Every other sentence was a metaphor, and I’d be rich if I had a dollar every time he wrote something akin to "He saw a thing, which reminded him of this thing he saw as a boy" or "He saw a thing, which resembled this other thing that seems unrelated but really isn't.” We get it, Cutter likes description.
But description doesn’t really matter if it isn’t balanced by a strong storyline, which I just didn’t see here. A bunch of mad scientists use worms to create a weight loss medication and release a body-hijacking parasite onto an unsuspecting small town (sorry, remote island). It’s not even unique. It’s like Cutter heard the urban legends about people eating tapeworms to lose weight and was like “I can make a story around that.” And he did, but not a good one.
Throughout the book I kept fighting the feeling that this was basically just an attempt to be like Steven King, and that's probably not fair. But there were lots of similarities--body-hijacking parasites, the ragtag cast of teen characters with shitty parents throwing taunts and jabs, the overly descriptive tone, toeing the line of body horror.....it would be nice to see a book like this that was more stylistically removed from King.
So in the end, I would have given this 1.5/5 stars because it lacked originality, had a weak story that that it tried to mask under an endless stream of heavy description and predictable teenage banter, and had almost farcical “scientific” interludes (as a scientist, these gave me a good chuckle, so I threw Cutter an extra 0.5 stars).
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death
_ash_mac's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, and Medical trauma
autumnrevisited's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Self harm, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Cursing, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, and Classism
Minor: Sexual content and Torture