Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

117 reviews

vixenreader's review against another edition

challenging dark lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.0

As distasteful of a novel as going to a slaughterhouse to see where your steak comes from, it is still a compelling character study about the worst person to serve at any fine dining establishment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Fatphobia, Rape, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Excrement, Police brutality, and Medical content

Be aware that this text deals with sex intermingling with slaughter, bigotry towards polyamory, rimming, BDSM, butchering humans for food, imprisonment, tasteless sexual quips, and self-righteous opinions about food.

sheianus's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Made my mouth water, made me gag a bit, and made me curious about what I’d taste like?
I appreciated how the narrator is a middle aged woman, as I feel we don’t read these types of stories with that demographic as the MC. It feels a lot more fleshed out as she takes us through her life and all these events that coalesce to bring us to where we find her. She’s lived a good amount of life and I feel the story shows that well. The story is told by an unreliable narcissist, and it definitely shows! But I like it all the more for that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Murder

thenoboshow's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

The writing captured the pretention of the writers career in food journalism. As most people who eat with their eyes I feel like I could have been more excited about the storytelling in a visual format like a movie or TV show. Living in the head of the main character didn't give us the space to empathize with her nor the distance to understand the charisma that must have existed to allow her to move through the world as she did. A third perspective would have really served.

pantrat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal death, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

courtnyklly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

• unreliable narrator
• characters you hate 
• over descriptive food talk that will leave you hungry 
• over descriptive murder and gore that will leave you reeling 
• chaotic evil female energy 
• burn the patriarchy taken to the absolute extreme
• bizarre hannibal lector vibes if hannibal lector was an upper class white woman in her 40s 

but also:
• long tangents that are mostly irrelevant sub-information
• an unshocking “twist”
• two murders that we didn’t get to hear about that i would’ve preferred over some of the random stuff that was included
• a slow moving (sometimes confusing) account of the life of someone who is extremely unlikeable except for the fact you want to know how she ended up in prison

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

ohheyclaude's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Cannibalism

okeyelke's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious tense medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Cannibalism

Moderate: Torture and Car accident

abigail_spencer's review against another edition

dark funny informative fast-paced

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

5.0

Somehow incredibly compelling and brilliantly written with sharp wit as well as insightful reflections, all this despite being almost entirely unrelatable. It's little gory at times, but very selfaware about that (the narrator literally calls you out for skimming over parts exactly at a moment i was going to do just that). Marks a clear distinction between the narrators psychopathic lack of remorse and the anthropological nuances/stigma around anthropophagy. I likewise enjoyed the literary references peppered through, they didnt seem forced but rather a side effect of the author's PhD in eighteenth century literature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, and Cannibalism

ingridreadss's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative tense fast-paced

• 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? Yes

5.0

i had so many thoughts while reading this, and now i have none. this is a freaking work of art, as messed up as it may be. i must admit i skimmed the overly-descriptive meals, but the rest i. ate. up. like a woman starved

dorothy, you psycho, “maneater” is your song

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Car accident, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

svnn's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Carrie Bradshaw + Anthony Bourdain + Hannibal =

The first 100 pages or so felt like quite a slog to get through, but I’m glad that I did as the rest of the book was pretty good. There just felt like so much filler throughout the book that really bogged it down for me and felt quite vapid, overly detailed, and ultimately unimportant to the plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, and Murder