Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

25 reviews

racl's review against another edition

dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The best way I've found to describe the bulk of the book is that it reads like NBC Hannibal feels to watch. It's downright decadent in it's description and focuses just as much on food as it does on murder. The main character manages to be likeable despite what she describes to the reader and the author really made her feel like a food columnist 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, Animal death, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Confinement, and Death of parent

prairieraven's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Cancer, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Abandonment, Alcohol, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Infidelity

lucylou's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.5

Crazy read. Interesting enough to finish, but my eyes glazed over a few times reading this, mainly around the 2/3rd mark. A pretentious main character who loves to talk and meander got pretty boring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Alcohol, Death of parent, Cancer, and Classism

abicaro17's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

The last 25% of the book was very gripping and intriguing. Unfortunately most of the book had me checking my progress and seeing if it was over yet. Im usually a sucker for a gruesome murder which this book technically delivers but, the descriptions of literally anything and everything take up most of the book. Its almost repetitive and it took a lot of self control not to skim the book. Plus the amount of times Dorothy was just like "oh yeah this happened anyways back to this food" was annoying as fuck. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Antisemitism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Cannibalism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Stalking, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

dark funny reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

holy shit. this book was as vile, graphic and brutal as it was brilliant - which is to say, extremely.
cynical, self-conscious, unflinching, and surprisingly profound.
 
dorothy was hilarious, and absolutely crazy. and the worst thing is, the whole book was also incredibly and excruciatingly thrilling. i was having fun watching a mad cannibalist skin her lover. i was having a jolly old time while reading about this psychopathic woman eating human meat and analyzing it as if it were just any other ordinary (and with ordinary i mean sophisticated and *italian*) meal. 
it was horrible and so entertaining.

it was a very slow book though with a lot of detailed descriptions, sautéed in a sauce of names, places and meals i've never even heard of (did i do that right?). it was a little unrelatable, or maybe i'm just uncultured. probably both since i do believe i'm not a psychopath so relating to this woman would be a little disconcerting. 

anyways, fun read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Gore, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Sexual content

Minor: Infidelity

tatimarie8284's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

it honestly took me a while to get into, the first day i got it i was struggling to read the first chapter because i wasn’t expecting the writing style but after i got past it it was such a page turner! couldn’t put it down! it was so uncomfortably descriptive it made it easy to put yourself in her world even though you wouldn’t want to. definitely one worth reading but not if you have a weak stomach 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Car accident, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Blood, Violence, Animal death, Cancer, Sexual harassment, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Body horror, Death of parent, Excrement, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, and Gore

lizzym126's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Murder, Violence, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

autumngk's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.75

I honestly don’t know what I was expecting from this book-cannibalism, sure, but the nonlinear format took me by surprise. Something about it felt too reliant on shock value and grotesque tropes, but after all it is a cannibal serial killer. I don’t know if I’m just beginning to be turned off by horror novels, but this one did the trick. There were really great sections, and I mean chapters at a time where the writing was absolutely beautiful and engaging. I wish we got to know more about Dorothy’s life as the prison librarian and how that began to effect her; I can’t tell if my reservations with this book are that if felt too short and heavy/reliant on the gore to tell its story or what! We get this really nice look into her life…..

Spoiler

after she’s adjusted to prison life during their group when the arsonist is telling her story and some of the other women are talking and Dorothy reveals a possible change in her feelings about what she’s done/herself. It’s not worthy of a sequel, just a couple more chapters here and there. While what we’re left with is a complete picture, it felt like there were just some missed opportunities. So many offers were put up in the air by introducing her in the present as working in the library; especially given her relationship with Emma, it felt unfinished in a way. We know so much about her while she’s cannibalizing and murdering these men senselessly, but it feels pointless to still know her while she’s imprisoned and know so little about her in the present. She still has the same voice. She still speaks the same about humanity. What about her changed? if nothing did, why this story? Why now? Just to sell cannibal torture porn?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Car accident, Death, Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cannibalism, Classism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Stalking, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Forced institutionalization

princesspunkass's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Confinement, Murder, and Rape

lqne's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Confinement, Death of parent, Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Infidelity, Rape, Cancer, Cannibalism, Car accident, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Sexism