Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

El hambre by Alma Katsu

17 reviews

taylorlanxon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, Cannibalism, and Murder

robotnik's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

Oops, unpopular opinion, I guess???

I've seen The Hunger mentioned a lot in horror cycles so I was excited to finally read it, but it was pretty disappointing.

The historical events of the Donner Party are equal parts horrific and tragic, and there was so much to work with for a tale about it and yet I feel this book honestly missed the mark. It went for the very stereotypical "oooo evil supernatural curse" route to explain away the cannibalism that happened instead of just going with the desperation of people trying to survive in dire circumstances that would have made a far more interesting story.

Most of the horror was honestly non-existent that I feel awkward even calling it a horror. The focus of the story was 75% on the melodrama between caravan members. Every single person here seems to be an asshole, and we got more about how people are cheating on each other and who's wanting to sleep with who and this guy is a creep who peeps on his daughters and that guy is hiding his homosexuality from his wife and kids and this guy is not bothering to hide his rapey vibes than we got the actual plot that we wanted to read. It's such a focus and yet absolutely zero of the characters are likable, thus causing their inevitable fates to not invoke any real emotion over it. That just feels like a big shame, especially considering several of these people were actual living, breathing people and it feels like a big disservice to their memory with how they were treated in the narrative.

It wasn't all bad, but it definitely felt like it was bloated with a lot of stuff that felt unimportant and was boring compared to what was wanted. When it actually found time for that, it was good. But sadly those moments were far too few. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cannibalism

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Outing, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia, Medical content, and War

rmnedder's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I love the Donner Party incident, and I love a good historical horror, so I had high hopes for this book. And unfortunately, I was let down. I will admit, the horror element of this book is intriguing, if a bit under-developed, and the inclusion of so many key players in the actual Donner Party was refreshing. However, there were so many things happening - so many secrets and so much interpersonal conflict - that the melodrama of it all actually eclipsed the horror. The plot crawls forward; any tension built up for the horror is immediately dissipated by the many strangely-placed interludes and frequent perspective changes. It's a little jarring and more than a little disjointed. 

It's a fine enough choice if you want a spooky Donner Party fiction novel (copious historical inaccuracies aside), but if you're looking for something true to history, or something genuinely thrilling, I'd skip this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Minor: Physical abuse and Pandemic/Epidemic

cvab's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

While a bit slow to get into (things started to amp up about 100 pages in), this was a very fun read. I'm not usually one for historical texts, but I can tell the author put a lot of care and passion into research for this novel. Piecing the story together through various characters' accounts made me feel as though I was a part of the wagon train myself, trying to figure out what was going on. The "big bad" is a very interesting premise, but I don't dare say more for fear of spoiling things. Great read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Any and all sexual themes here (

rape, incest

) are used for horror purposes and not glorified or romanticized.

hattey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

A hard read because it's a lot of bad stuff happening to everyone. But it's compelling for sure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual harassment

glassflowrr's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Solid story with some amazing moments of terror and gore. I really enjoyed the pacing. There are a few too many POV characters to keep track of and some aren't very well-developed as voices, but the good ones are very interesting to be with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

ak97x's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual violence

Minor: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Suicide attempt, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Graphic depiction or two of animal death, important to the story line. Child death / murder and abuse discussed. Attempted r*pe and familial r*pe discussed, as is voluntary incest. This book, as the real event, heavily involves cannibalism. Historical accuracies were well used coupled with fabrication to make it interesting.

mandi_lea's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

The Details:
Narrated by Kirsten Potter
Unabridged 

I think I would have preferred having read the non fiction event of what happened, which is a first for me.
It just felt a bit off and I can't exactly pin point why - but I know that for me, I quickly lost track of all the characters.

The skin walker lore was interesting, and I would like to read more about that in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic