markedwithanm'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Eating disorder, Blood, Grief, Mental illness, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Animal cruelty
ainhoalikesbooksandmangos'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Cursing, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Animal death, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, and Sexual violence
pranphetamine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Sexual content
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Transphobia
eatingbrains's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
The writing was quite well done, kind of a bit of mixed media with the journal entries, chat logs, transcripts, poetry, and radio show vibes. The first three victims were well fleshed out and their trauma was ever present and horrifying. The later ones felt more superficial though I'm not really sure why. There were also quite a few questions that were raised in the plot that were never answered that made it feel a bit rushed.
I do think this is a good book that has a lot of value in representing sexual assault as a whole and especially in male victims. However, with all that in mind, I don't feel like I was the intended audience because I don't generally like to read books about rape. I suppose I didn't expect it to be quite so graphic about it.
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Body horror, and Torture
Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
maur1vannistelrooij's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual violence, Self harm, and Physical abuse
chloseencounter'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? Yes
5.0
I really enjoyed hearing all the different POVs of the antagonist’s victims, this was a very raw look into all the various outcomes that can come from surviving sexual assault, weather it’s dealing by humor, family, control, emptiness, self destructive behavior, or even suicide. While the characters were interesting and their storylines were heartbreaking, the most special thing to me about this novel is the look at what women so often deal with when faced with sexual violence but through the eyes of a man. Unfortunately female victims of sexual assault are all too common, we hear about it so much in fact, our society has become desensitized to the sexual abuse women face and how it’s handled by the public. Flipping the narrative and using men as the victims not only opens up an important conversation about men who have experienced sexual violence and how they are treated but also made the subject feel much more shocking. Then I suppose we can ask ourselves…why is that? Why is being sexually assaulted as a women so commonplace that it doesn’t feel nearly as gut wrenching to read?
Spoiler
The most eye opening part in my opinion was the very last bit, when our serial rapist responds to the journalist, in which she replies with a lot of grotesque language about how a women might think about men as essentially prey or even nonhuman. Then she sends the same exact paragraph replacing the pronouns with she/her, it was sort of appalling to see how different those paragraphs felt right next to one another. Why one was shocking and the other…felt sort of normal. As a women it was easy for me to read the paragraph and think “yea that’s just how men often think of us”, and yet the same exact paragraph but with men as the group being preyed upon felt much more abhorrent.At the end of the day, I think that ultimately there wasn’t one predator but multiple women predators. The story seemed to lump these people into one frightening amalgamation of a women because how could society believe that there may be multiple women out there preying upon men, it must be a repeat offender. However, when a women is attacked it could literally be “any man”, which is a very smart way to make a statement about how both male and female victims of sexual violence are seen unfairly by the general public.
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Death, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Transphobia, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
corpseparty's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Murder, Child abuse, Death, Self harm, Animal death, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Torture, and Sexual content
kkbyers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
autumnwhite's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Cancer, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Rape, Self harm, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness
peytonliveslife's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia