Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

12 reviews

cclara's review

dark tense medium-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Dementia, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide

arel2908's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Death, Blood, Chronic illness, Confinement, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, Racism, Animal death, Death of parent, and Dementia

jesticulate's review against another edition

dark mysterious

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Ableism, Blood, Death, Homophobia, Racism, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Rape

I found the beginning of this book excellent and really compelling. In the middle, I was deeply upset because there are no trigger warnings and I ended up hearing (audiobook version) a very graphic rape scene before I was able to turn off the audio. And the end of the book went on too long. Definitely not Chucks best work. But i still really liked the beginning…

narzibenoucdel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Smart and nicely paced with well-earned twists and revelations. Character writing felt a bit lacking for my personal taste, but it was still difficult to put down the book despite it being 800 pages; it certainly didn't feel that long since the prose was accessible given the genre and themes. It is an extremely contemporary American novel ripe with many references and an inherent leftist anxiety, but as someone who agrees with the author's (presumed) ideology, the big bad villains felt more prescient than caricature. Certain aspects surrounding the political themes in the novel felt on-the-nose, but the rest of the book's strengths outweighed any minor hiccup in this regard.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Grief, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Rape, Hate crime, Cursing, Mental illness, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Racism, Confinement, Gore, and Gun violence

cassie7e's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is DARK. And achingly long. It feels like run of the mill sci fi until about halfway through when the white supremacists get to hurt people on page. TW for rape, torture, imprisonment, etc. I was not prepared given how mildly graphic topics were handled til that point, with sex being all fade to black and most injuries happening off page or in backstories. And then each sci fi revelation in the back half adds a sinister layer to the whole plot. 

However the politics and desire to seem progressive are stark, and come up in places that just don't flow naturally with the story, like the author needed to jam them in even when they weren't really relevant to the story. Especially when things like climate change are thrown into lines of exposition, all tell and no show, no inherent link to the plot beyond "the world is already doooomed!!" which is just not compelling on its own. This to say that this book is not escapist, and may annoy you even if you agree with its values like I do. If I'd known how despicably polictical the arc would be I might not have picked this up, or at least been better prepared when things got darker fast.

This book also hits closer to home because it describes so so well how people reacted to COVID, before it even happened. In retrospect this isn't surprising; the COVID reactions and White Mask reactions stem from movements and ideologies already stoked in years leading up. But this may make it extra real for readers sensitive to pandemic stories.

Surprise aro/ace mention right at the start! Love seeing this exist in more books. But it doesn't really come up again, and the one other time it's referenced it doesn't really seem to be an accurate understanding of what asexuality is.

One of my least favorite audio narrators, makes every character sound aloof and cocky and judgy or hesitant and whiney. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Torture, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Addiction, Cursing, Dementia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Police brutality, Pregnancy, Medical content, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Child death

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Powerful book especially in the post 2020 world. Hard to believe it was published in 2019. Definitely hard to read at times but one of the few books I had trouble putting down at night because I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Torture, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Chronic illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, Sexual assault, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dementia, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Medical content, Drug use, Dementia, and Cursing

evelynleigh's review

dark mysterious slow-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Blood, Cursing, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Racism

Minor: Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Vomit

kayahcherie's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Starting with the good: the plot development, the characters, the story in and of itself—all of that was so, so good. A real good apocalyptic, pandemic-meets-climate-change-and-current-political-realities page turner. 

However, the dialogue throughout was so cringey. I would get it if it were stylistic to a specific character but it wasn’t. And I absolutely hated the ending (literally just the last four or five pages. Like. Seriously?????).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gun violence, Blood, War, Violence, and Rape

Moderate: Addiction and Suicide

sydbap's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

brigidc's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

This book made me so unhappy. It wasn’t the sci-fi fantasy that I felt the back cover’s description portrayed, instead it was dark and gruesome and miserable with no redeeming positive themes or moments. It’s not for everyone, and it wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Torture, Pregnancy, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Gore, Death of parent, Confinement, Body horror, Blood, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Violence, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Hate crime, and Death

I read this a year ago and added all the content warnings I could remember (over 20) but there were probably some I forgot. In addition to a (minor/vague spoiler)