Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Exquisite Corpse

There’s no words for this book.i dont know if i liked it or if every word made me sick. The story of Luke and Tran is tragic, and the centering of young gay men in the deepest pits of the AIDS epidemic is captivating and crushing all at once. In another world where this book was just about that maybe I would have loved it.

Content Warnings

legere_libros's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

In its gore, this book finds beauty. In its vulgarity, this book finds honesty. In its rawness, this book finds meaning. There is something so blossomingly beautiful about "Exquisite Corpse" and the way it makes all its characters infinitely detestable and reluctantly enjoyable to read about. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, and my heart ached for Tran (only actually likeable character I fear) but there is definitely something profound here. I do think the beginning was maybe stronger than the end, which is largely tension and shock whereas I feel the beginning has more substance, and there are certain moments where the writing feels a bit clunky - I may have cringed a little when i saw "orbs" used fully unironically in a published work - but this is definitely a sure add to the "disturbing social commentaries" book iceberg.

Content Warnings

hippieonsteroids's review

Go to review page

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

5.0

This novel is very much a fictional story based off the life of Jeffrey Dahmer. The author includes an excerpt from Jeffrey Dahmers trial, giving the readers an automatic insight on what this book will be delivering. The story is extremely dark, the chapters each being from a different characters perspective was an interesting tactic for this author to use. The characters all meet at some point so their stories overlap but the author does this by switching midway from third to first person. But it would always be third person from Jay to Andrew Compton. Who because of this the reader would know that Andrew Compton was the main character. The book didn’t do this immediately, it did this when Andrew crossed paths with Jay and Luke, but oddly enough not Tran. This book was challenging in content wise not reading difficulty. Towards the end you get one last chapter in Tran’s third person perspective and it is painful. What this book does is exemplify how homophobia and racism was a major factor in why Jeffrey Dahmer got away with his murders for a number of years. This novel very much resembles Jeffrey Dahmer and his possible perspectives while also providing the perspective of the victims and the victims loved ones.

Content Warnings

hijinxed's review

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

disgusting. amazing. never reading again!

Content Warnings

More...