Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Groomer by Jon Athan

2 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

This book makes every other piece of horror media (books and movies) I've seen look like blue's clues. Like holy shit it's graphic. The content warning was serious. Things get real bad in chapter 3 and go on for awhile. The beginning is like the movie Hostel but involving torturing kidnapped kids. I expected this book to be like the movie Taken, but the second half is more like I Spit On Your Grave. I hated basically every second of it.

shamwow2000's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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

5.0

The Groomer is a fantastic, brutally real look into the world of child predators. 
I’m not normally a fan of Rape-Revenge stories, because of their exploitative nature. However, this book tackled the genre without ever feeling exploitative of the child victims. The descriptions of violence were satisfyingly (and sometimes horrifyingly) graphic.
Jon Athan managed to depict truly despicable acts while never slipping into the realm of exploitation or torture porn. 
I highly recommend this book to any extreme horror fan. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

Minor: Slavery