Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

5 reviews

drossg's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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’m not much of a horror guy, but I really enjoyed what this book was using horror to do and the more I think about it the more I like it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying

outerscout's review

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

found this veeery slow and hard to get into to the point where i kept putting it down for other books over 2 months, but then the ending made me cry a ton. writing is a bit difficult to visualize sometimes, something i noticed continues into the only good indians but found much improved by my heart is a chainsaw. wish there was more build-up to the main twist (?) re:

the externimation company's werewolf piss slavery

but the last part of the book was much more engaging, and love a good framing device reveal. i feel like i'd enjoy it more on a reread

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Confinement

Moderate: Torture, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

lynxpardinus's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Pedophilia

Contains discussion of bestiality - as well as a scene where a werewolf in shift is mounted by a dog, albeit evidently against her will.
Antisemitism warning is just in case, for a chapter that involves a Jewish cemetery.

childofmongreldogs's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

An absolutely gorgeous book in every sense of the word.

The elements of horror and sadness are so strong. Gore heavy and a difficult read in some places despite it's length and the absolute readability of it. I have so many thoughts and how the lycanthropy relates to intergenerational trauma, the mysticism of families, poverty, etc. Just absolutely masterful.

Despite the feeling of sadness I got reading the ending, it was surprising how hopeful the ending truly was. In a book that was frequently so bleak and painful, the idea that there's a possibility for a happy ending was euphoric. I don't know what to say except that this is probably my top read this year and possibly this decade.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Blood, Police brutality, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bookwormbi's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I didn't get this book for most of the time I was reading it. If you're not here for a literary take on werewolves, this book isn't for you. That said, the ending absolutely made the book for me. the last two chapters finally let me know where the book was going and what it was meant to be about, and I'm going to be thinking about it for a while to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

There's mentions of bestiality.