Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

15 reviews

abbysingh's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Hate crime, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality

amessina3399's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Is it weird to say that this book was...beautiful? Terribly deranged, and so sick and twisted, but the writing was *chef's kiss*. Brite has such a way with language that even the most horrific descriptions read like poetry. If you are a logophile like myself, this book is a must-read. That being said, expect all of the triggers (except those about women--to be honest, there are few to no women characters in this book). Brite somehow makes you fall in love with all of the characters--flaws, sins, and all--in a way that keeps the story devastating and strong. While this book is about serial killers, it's also about the AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s and how brutally it affected the queer community, and about the intimate lives and fears of the queer community of the time. This book will live on my shelf forever and will forever on be one of my favorites.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Grief

legere_libros's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Police brutality

erica_reads_things's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This is one of the "oldest" horror books that I have read on my journey so far and it did not disappoint! I could have gone for even more gore, personally, but I did really enjoy the intense emotional stories of the characters Tran and Luke. The inclusion of the AIDS epidemic and the societal commentary was a pleasant surprise amongst my expectation of a gory horror novel. This was just overall a pretty great, quick read and a must for horror fans. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Classism

Minor: Incest and Stalking

jully_bean's review

dark tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

sigynmoon's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality

issymaae's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

cady_sass's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

YIKES okay extreme horror might not be for me… this is widely understood to be one of the most disturbing books ever written and I can absolutely vouch. I am disgusted. Revolted. Horrified. Sickened. Every other synonymous descriptive word you can think of, I feel it. I hate this, and I hate that I know it will fester in my brain for a long, long time. The body horror is so gruesomely well depicted it may make you sick if you have a weak stomach, let alone some of the other content. This ain’t for me, but if you’re into deranged and depraved horror this is likely a 5 star book. It definitely accomplished what it set out to do, so… points for that. The writing is pretty spectacular when you take a moment to separate that from the actual content, if not a little overly verbose in more than a few parts. 

I’m going to stress again that I recommend this book to absolutely no one - look up the content warnings and read responsibly 🤢

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Necrophilia

niccolowilliam's review

dark sad tense fast-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? Yes

2.0

It started out horrible then got slightly better towards the end. Dont get me wrong i love disturbing and grotesque things. It honestly wasnt the way they talked about cannibalism and necrophillia it was the weird was they talked about asians and the fact that its clearly Jeffery dahmer 'inspired' (im using the nicer word) which made me really uncomfortable. His victims were real people and the author is definitely not in the demographic that dahmer went after to say the least so ot just feels tone deaf. Every gay charecter is a negative stereotype and

jay and andrew dont even meet until near the end of the story but the summary makes it seem like the main point of the book will be them together not just the mediocre conclusion

Even the sexual and gory stuff (so every other page) felt more for the sake of being shocking and disturbing than weaving an actual plot sometimes. I gave it two stars because there are definitely some moments i liked but i dont even have the energy to write every single issue i had with this story down

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Slavery, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, and Outing

firstknight's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Hate crime, Incest, and Infidelity