Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

The Troop by Nick Cutter

39 reviews

mechtimber's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Vomit, Eating disorder, and Self harm

Minor: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cursing, and Excrement

alex_e_liddiard's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Body horror

j_m_alexander's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.75

 NOPE! - nope, nope, nope.

Body horror, animal harm, and overly descriptive scenes written with the explicit intention of raising the bile straight up your gullet. Can't say the writing is itself is bad exactly, so thus not a 1-star, but oof I REALLY did NOT like this book. This is a straight up book of grotesqueries that tries to toy with ideas of psychological terror, that I just didn't find successful within the context of the relentless squelching bodily fluid wallowing imagery. The premise is what drew me in, but after a while it seemed like the boys slid back into caricatures (it's like Cutter said "have your read The Body or Lord of the Flies, and/or seen the respective movies? -- it's pretty much some of those kids with a touch of a more youthful and messier American Psycho") and the order of operations were fairly predictable I found.

In reflection I recognize that what I look for most from horror these days is building tension and I am not as big of a fan of overt body horror, so this is maybe just the opposite of my current preferences. I have specifically identified that possession stories are something I am just NOT into, and really this is a possession story, a different take on possession, but possession none-the-less. Intermittently Cutter broke in with after-the-fact reports and testimonies, he mentioned being inspired by Carrie, and I can't decide if these helped or hurt the book; often they worked as a pallet cleansers from all the revulsion by inserting plain reportage, but they also depleted momentum... not sure if the trade off was worth it. I did find myself wanting to stop at points so maybe I would have made this a rare DNF if not for those breaks in the story, but then again maybe I would have sped through it instead of the stopping and starting as I ended up doing, making the choppiness even more pronounced.

Carrie apparently was an inspiration of sorts, but that book was punchier and King managed development with economy, while this book seemed sickeningly bloated, squishy, and somewhat flat. The more direct King comparison to make would be Dreamcatcher, which was also not my cup of tea, but in hindsight (and comparatively) is not so bad, certainly I think it's a better take on the basic premise of this other type of possession in the context of a group of friends in a secluded setting.

If you like detailed descriptions of slow horrific death and have a strong stomach (or enjoy the sensation of wanting to toss your cookies), then maybe this is a good book for you! Not a good book for me as it turns out.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Terminal illness, Violence, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Medical trauma, Medical content, Cursing, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Grief, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

voxlunae's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Man, this book is fucking gross. So disturbing sometimes. I grimaced through whole scenes, several times. However, I really enjoyed the writing and I burned through it in two sittings. I always advocate for more diverse characters and strong female characters, but given that this is about Boy Scouts and inspired by Lord of the Flies, the homogeneity isn't surprising. I give it a pass. Really taut storytelling, a horrifying threat, some heartbreaking scenes, and all the skin-crawling disgust you could ask for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, and Self harm

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, and Homophobia

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, Confinement, Cannibalism, and Cursing

alsavini's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Eating disorder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Child death, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, Gore, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

crownoftamriel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I will start with I am not a horror fan, especially in movies. I get nightmares easily. :( ....now you're thin ing "why the eff did you read this?" Curiosity..okay.... everyone from booktok to bookstagram was name dropping this and I had to be in on it. I heard it was messed up and I didn't believe anyone. 

I read What Moves the Dead and was pretty bored. I guess I wanted "more" from the spooky/horror category. Welp, this absolutely delivered. 

My first reaction after putting it down was "...what the ever living duckaroni did I just read." and that I have to tell everyone about it. 1. The main....issue in this book is one of my irrational fears so that did not help. 2. Yes, it's strong teen boy energy because it's a boy scout troop, which is a little annoying but that's the point. Teen boys are annoying lol. Pretty stereotypical choices for each of the characters. 3. I adored the inserts of the court cases and observations. I love that stuff. I want backstory. I want a conclusion. I needed that evil.

This is just...wow, gross and graphic. I felt it started a little slow and then suddenly I couldn't put it down. According to my kindle, from around the 35% mark was when I just straight up binged this to completion in maybe a day. 

I think I may have overkilled on the content warnings, but I felt that what I listed is touched up on (I didn't realize there were categories of content warnings until I made the list so I'm not editting it). This book made me gag and gasp in the ways it was supposed to..I think I may read another horror book, especially by Nick Cutter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Animal death, Eating disorder, Gore, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, and Terminal illness

rosaelia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

5.0

Wow, this one was absolutely amazing.
I dropped (not DNF'd; I'll pick it back up eventually) Cows for this one. And boy oh boy, am I glad that I did.

I grew to love

the last character, Max.

The ending was somewhat confusing, though?

Did Max end up actually infected? If so, how? Did the worms stay dormant and hidden inside of him somehow?

Anyway, it was a fabulous read! Sort of a slow start once it focuses on the boys, but it was very worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Fatphobia, Death, Self harm, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, Child death, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Torture, and Mental illness

Moderate: Cursing and Vomit

Minor: Excrement and Alcohol

layc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Violence, and Murder

that_cow_girl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book simultaneously disgusted me and broke my heart. It didn’t take long for things to start happening and then it just kept coming. This book literally wormed its way into my head and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It also referenced Anne of Green Gables twice which is my favorite book, and I thought it was hilarious that THIS was the book it was referenced in. I loved the characters of the Scouts. Each boy was so unique and fascinating. I DID have to skip the part about

Shelley killing his mom’s cat. I can handle a lot of gore and all that, but cats and dogs I can’t handle. I also sobbed my eyes out at the part with the turtle.

if you like nasty books, consider this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Medical trauma, Cursing, Fatphobia, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Torture, Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Gaslighting, Self harm, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Child death, Eating disorder, Confinement, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Abandonment, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

soaphest's review against another edition

not sure how to rate this. imo it was a good book but i wouldn’t re-read it or recommend it to anyone, because aside from the fact that i did think it was well-written with a decent story and set of characters it didn’t provide me with anything special or any sense of fulfilment. moreover this book was very heavy on the animal cruelty and some of the sequences were so jarring that had to skip over it because it became very upsetting, and i don’t think this level of detail in the descriptions was necessary aside from providing shock value. ultimately, i did not think that this book was scary or frightening, just sad, disgusting and tragic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Child death, Gore, Torture, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Vomit, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body shaming, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Cannibalism, Xenophobia, and Forced institutionalization