Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

65 reviews

erinmichele_reads's review

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

agravereader's review

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

This book is SO fucked up. So, so, so fucked up. 

I loved it. Not sure what that means for me.

It was character-driven in a way I absolutely cannot resist. Four points of view from four (arguably three) terribly flawed and deranged men in their own ways, but with such love amd obsession interwoven that I felt... something? Toward them. Additionally, the AIDS commentary, specifically how the disease and the tragedy of the people who contracted HIV were treated by society was not what I was expecting from this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

essie101's review

challenging dark sad medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia and Incest

gracehodges's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

racl's review

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.25

It's not an easy read, and not one I can recommend to many people in good conscience. It's graphic in many ways - gore, sex, disease, anger - all of which is beautifully and carefully written. Each character feels distinct and well formed as they enter the story and begin to intertwine with each other throughout the novel. I didn't know much going in, but I enjoyed the reality and different perspectives of gay men dealing with the AIDS epidemic (and how it wasn't the motive for either of the murderers). I felt it was handled well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Vomit

Minor: Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Police brutality, and Pandemic/Epidemic

remghoul's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Outing

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

ryankaybee's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

quietlex's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I have no complaints. As twisted as it is, I was cheering inside when Andrew and Jay finally found each other. To be able to know another so deeply at their core, and have your fleeting time together ripped away so soon. This is a beautifully written dark horror, eloquent and right to the point. The ending feels a bit rushed and sad, such is death. Very fitting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

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