Reviews

Something Akin to Revulsion: Six Extreme Short Stories by Judith Sonnet

Only show reviews with written explanations

xwritingstoriesx's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

LOLCOW: 3 stars
Liquid Sick: 3.5 stars
Rehearsal: 3.5 stars
Body Crunch: 3.5 stars
Coke Nail: 3.5 stars
Something Akin To Revulsion: 4 stars

Content Warnings

the whole book was pretty good, I had a couple of meh stories but for the most part I did enjoy them all!

lolcow - 4 stars. I did think it was too short and at parts felt like a bit over the top and then it was quickly over, but for the most part it was interesting.

liquid sick - 4 stars. the only complaint I have is that the writing was a bit too simplistic but other than that the story was really good.

rehearsal - 3 stars. the beginning was a bit confusing but then it got better, still wasn't my favourite. the ending really saved it for me, it was good!

body-crunch - 3 stars. I did feel a bit bored reading this but again, the ending saved it for me, hence the 3 stars.

coke-nail - 5 stars. it was so fucked lol can't explain why cos you have to read it for yourself but I literally loved it. it was well written as well.

something akin to revulsion - 5 stars. it was well written and thought out of. you could tell the author put a lot of thought into this story. it was more of a classic horror than straight up gore which I appreciated 👍

harrowclare's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.5

Gosh, I was not a big fan of this short story collection. Despite it being under 200 pages, it took me three sittings to get through, for a myriad of reasons. The ratings for this one are overall pretty high, so I was looking forward to popping my Judith Sonnet cherry…and I wish I would have found something else to start out with.

Going to keep things vague, but if you want to know absolutely nothing about these stories, then things might be semi-spoilers.

Lolcow follows a narrator looking for the most depraved individual online to laugh at but ultimately winds up with more than she bargains for.

Liquid Sick is the story of a TERF whose mouth writes checks her ass can’t cash.

Rehearsal shows high school bullies who take things way too far.

Body-Crunch tells the story of a backyard bare-knuckle wrestling match gone wrong.

Coke-Nail is the tale of three friends who knock on the wrong door.

Something Akin to Revulsion follows a bratty tween whose prank goes awry.

There are some types of extreme horror that I enjoy, but I struggle a bit with shit and vomit. If you’re into shit and vomit, this is the collection for you. Despite not enjoying that aspect (and others) it wasn’t all bad.

I honestly found the concepts of all six of these stories to be really interesting, and I never expected the awful turn each story would make. It was great to read an extreme story written by a trans author that shows a TERF getting brutally fucked up, and I liked that sometimes horrible things happened to normal, good people too and that not everything was a revenge plot.

But none of the characters were compelling enough for me to care whether they lived or died, and the writing overall felt unfinished at times. The whole thing read more like a first draft than a finished product, and I guess I just wanted more from it, narratively. The descriptions for the gore were really well done – at times too well done – but, and this is a total nitpick, there wasn’t really a focus on how any of the pain really felt physically, so it was hard for me to immerse myself in the story enough to believe these characters were feeling anything at all.

I’m still looking forward to reading more by Sonnet, despite not being a big fan of this one. Splatterpunk is a very mixed bag, and I am eager to find some stories that I truly love. Of these six, I think Rehearsal and Something Akin to Revulsion were the most compelling.

No new words.

zkoch's review

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

blackclaws_reads's review

Go to review page

4.0

A collection of six short stories that will leave you more horrified and disgusted with every page.

This is extreme, brutal and revolting, when I thought I’ve read the most repulsive thing ever, there was more. And I loved every disturbing second of it.

But I will probably never look at a pizza cutter the same way.