Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

77 reviews

sincerelynkechi's review

challenging 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

readerofdafuk's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Really solid book. Very disturbing and grotesque imagery that I was looking for in a horror novel. 

The author just thought "what if Jeffrey Daumer and Dennis Nilson met up during the AIDS Epidemic"

A lot of themes of poisonous, tainted love with how the serial killers express love over dead bodies, how the gay community is viewed, and how gay lovers can literally be infected with AIDS. 

A lot of commentary about AIDS and the impact it has, along with a bitter hollow ending that, well, matches the outlook a lot of gay men had back then. 

This was a wonderful read, it ticked all the rights boxes for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction and Cannibalism

rikathestrange's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Murder

pinkfloydtwisted's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

skogsheks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest

fluoresensitive's review

2.0

Racist, horrific sexualization of rape that seems to be oh so common in white queer spaces, the disgusting grandaddy to Brainwyrms. Fucking ew.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Pandemic/Epidemic

eris_in_chains's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Thoroughly enjoyed this book though I must say that it's very much a product of its time (cannot tell whether the author intented to fetishize East Asian men here.) An interesting Jeffrey Dahmer fanfic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

erkkmoon's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol

dmcvey2719's review

challenging dark mysterious 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: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, and Murder

adorableautist's review

challenging dark reflective 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

2.0

If you're looking into William Joseph Martin's (formerly known as Poppy Z. Brite) notorious queer splatterhouse opus, then you likely already have some sense of what you're getting into with this one. Its indulgences in sexuality and gratuitous violence is genuinely difficult to read, and I almost gave up on the book multiple times right up to the last few pages.

Exquisite Corpse lacks the campy revelry, magical realism, or self conscious introspection that marks most of the splatterhouse lit that is actually worth reading. Instead it ambitiously attempts to grapple with the cruel confluenceof queerness and violence that became the dominant culural narrative for gay men in the eighties and nineties. Most characters in the book are HIV positive and nearly all of them have received, witnessed, or inflicted grotesque violence by the end of the book. 

This willfully tasteless literary construction might've amounted to something genuinely compelling if it hadn't undermined itself by depicting its serial killer characters as romantically powerful and hyper inteligent super villains. For all of the literary talent on display, which is by no means meager, the end result feels juvenile in its romanticization of serial killers. The monstrous characters would have better served the the book's emotional and thematic needs, no matter how sweetly nihilistic they might be, if they had been allowed to be altogether more pathetic than enticing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Torture, and Murder