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sommarborne's reviews
33 reviews
Confessions by Kanae Minato
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Psychic Teenage Bloodbath by Carl John Lee
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I do think this book was intentionally written to serve as a B-rate horror novel, but I don’t really think it hit the mark and it was mostly an annoying read.
The most annoying thing about this book is that it actually has an interesting idea and cast of characters to work with. The book could have easily been a lesbian centric Carrie style revenge tale & it could have been incredible in so many ways, but instead the author just sticks to cheap violence & excessive sexual assault/violence.
First: this is not an “extreme horror” book. It is just gory and not in an interesting or particularly well done way. Everything felt like a gore gag you would see in an episode of South Park. Most of the gore came off as cheesy & like the author has no clue how to write visceral body horror or violence. Though in his defense, I don’t think he was exactly aiming to make this an art house horror either.
Second problem is the fact that this book was clearly not edited - or if it was, that editor needs to get canned. There were so many typos and weird phrasing and contradictions. The only thing the “writing” had going for was a vaguely interesting plot.
I do love the idea! And I am always going to be excited about more queer horror since that is my favorite brand of horror. Unfortunately, you can really tell that a man wrote this because the way the female characters interact both sexually and romantically is just so far off base from how women (usually) treat each other. There were entire segments and random mentions of nipples and “tits” and “ass” that it makes Stephen King’s occasional bouts of sexism seem progressive.
Pretty much every sex scene is rape or attempted rape or about rape. The only semi genuine consensual scene at the end fades to black & then you find out it might not be so consensual after all.
It is too bad the author wanted to be more tropey and cheesy. I would have loved more introspection about Susan losing her mind and turning into this psychotic bloodthirsty psychic. I don’t doubt it would have happened in her situation after a year, but it sucks we saw absolutely none of it progress. This book would have been so much better if the author just took a breath and paced himself.
I thought there could have been more complexity with Lynette and Charlie too. They literally just …fall in love in the span of a weekend & it is hard to really grasp why? I could buy their relationship, absolutely! But its execution was poorly handled. Lynette could have been so interesting too but that was another lost opportunity.
Charlie was honestly fine as the main character. She wasn’t offensive or even annoying: just underdeveloped.
For a split second, I thought Greta was going to have more nuance than Generic High School Popular Mean Girl, and I was honestly so ready to applaud the subversion, but then it didn’t happen and went to the shitter.
No characters have any arc whatsoever unless I guess if you count Susan’s descent but since we don’t really see this, it doesn’t count. I LOVE stories like these and usually the center of the disaster in a town is THE most interesting part like Carrie or Alessa in Silent Hill. And Susan could have been *horrifying* and in theory, she was, but the writing did not serve her potential at all and it is too bad.
I genuinely wanted to like this book. On paper, it has all the ingredients of an amazing horror novel of the likes we haven’t seen in a while. Buuut unfortunately the author just cared more about gore and rape porn & cheesy sequences to give more than a passing thought. I sort of hope one day someone writes something similar but with the sorely deserving depth that this book completely lacked.
I don’t think anyone would enjoy this book for real unless I guess you are a teen boy going through a “A Serbian Film is the most intense horror movie evah!!” Phase. I think it is an okay read for feeling inspired as a writer though, and I think it serves as a decent example of how shitty your book might be if you decide to self-publish without an adequate editor.
If this book was trad published w a professional author then shame on that entire company.
The most annoying thing about this book is that it actually has an interesting idea and cast of characters to work with. The book could have easily been a lesbian centric Carrie style revenge tale & it could have been incredible in so many ways, but instead the author just sticks to cheap violence & excessive sexual assault/violence.
First: this is not an “extreme horror” book. It is just gory and not in an interesting or particularly well done way. Everything felt like a gore gag you would see in an episode of South Park. Most of the gore came off as cheesy & like the author has no clue how to write visceral body horror or violence. Though in his defense, I don’t think he was exactly aiming to make this an art house horror either.
Second problem is the fact that this book was clearly not edited - or if it was, that editor needs to get canned. There were so many typos and weird phrasing and contradictions. The only thing the “writing” had going for was a vaguely interesting plot.
I do love the idea! And I am always going to be excited about more queer horror since that is my favorite brand of horror. Unfortunately, you can really tell that a man wrote this because the way the female characters interact both sexually and romantically is just so far off base from how women (usually) treat each other. There were entire segments and random mentions of nipples and “tits” and “ass” that it makes Stephen King’s occasional bouts of sexism seem progressive.
Pretty much every sex scene is rape or attempted rape or about rape. The only semi genuine consensual scene at the end fades to black & then you find out it might not be so consensual after all.
It is too bad the author wanted to be more tropey and cheesy. I would have loved more introspection about Susan losing her mind and turning into this psychotic bloodthirsty psychic. I don’t doubt it would have happened in her situation after a year, but it sucks we saw absolutely none of it progress. This book would have been so much better if the author just took a breath and paced himself.
I thought there could have been more complexity with Lynette and Charlie too. They literally just …fall in love in the span of a weekend & it is hard to really grasp why? I could buy their relationship, absolutely! But its execution was poorly handled. Lynette could have been so interesting too but that was another lost opportunity.
Charlie was honestly fine as the main character. She wasn’t offensive or even annoying: just underdeveloped.
For a split second, I thought Greta was going to have more nuance than Generic High School Popular Mean Girl, and I was honestly so ready to applaud the subversion, but then it didn’t happen and went to the shitter.
No characters have any arc whatsoever unless I guess if you count Susan’s descent but since we don’t really see this, it doesn’t count. I LOVE stories like these and usually the center of the disaster in a town is THE most interesting part like Carrie or Alessa in Silent Hill. And Susan could have been *horrifying* and in theory, she was, but the writing did not serve her potential at all and it is too bad.
I genuinely wanted to like this book. On paper, it has all the ingredients of an amazing horror novel of the likes we haven’t seen in a while. Buuut unfortunately the author just cared more about gore and rape porn & cheesy sequences to give more than a passing thought. I sort of hope one day someone writes something similar but with the sorely deserving depth that this book completely lacked.
I don’t think anyone would enjoy this book for real unless I guess you are a teen boy going through a “A Serbian Film is the most intense horror movie evah!!” Phase. I think it is an okay read for feeling inspired as a writer though, and I think it serves as a decent example of how shitty your book might be if you decide to self-publish without an adequate editor.
If this book was trad published w a professional author then shame on that entire company.
Cows by Matthew Stokoe
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is without a doubt a challenging read. The first 70 pages are fairly brutal to get through and most people can’t seem to get that far.
However, this book is oddly captivating and reads like a deeply disturbing urban fairy tale. The second half of the book reminded me a lot of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It is better to go into this story expecting it to read like a fairy tale & to not take the story to be “realistic” in any sense of the word.
All of the characters except for Steven (the main character) are obnoxious over the top depictions of various levels of evil or hopelessness. The dialogue, in my opinion, is the worst part of the book. It is annoying to read and never gets better.
The author really spoon feeds you way too much. He doesn’t seem to trust the art of subtle storytelling or showing rather than telling. The dialogue is more fitting of a child’s story where you have to make it clear who the “bad guy” is.
It does come across like the author or, at the very least, the main character does not like women whatsoever or anything with a vagina. There is a good deal of vaginal mutilation in this book & a focus on using that as a form of reaffirming Steven’s sense of masculinity. I do think that was the point but I also feel like the author did not convey this particularly well and it made me roll my eyes several times.
I do not usually comment on the physical descriptors of characters too often, but I have to admit that the book is actually super fatphobic and I mean that for real. Steven’s mother is obese and every scene with her makes a point to mention her fatness in revolting ways meant to emphasize her “evilness” essentially. Like I said, the characters are cartoonishly bad.
There is also a super random use of the n-word for absolutely no reason and I mean NO reason. It was so out of left field I had to reread it ten times over because I kept trying to understand where it came from. The book has nothing to do with racism whatsoever & it is one of the cows that randomly says it? It is toward middleish of the book.
The violence is a bit obnoxious and it reminds me of try hards doing their best to use shock and disgust rather than writing better, but the writing itself actually is good beyond that and the development of Steven’s character arc is surprisingly well done. This might seem wild to admit given the context of this book, but Steven is a weirdly relatable main character and I have to give props to the author for that.
He isn’t relatable in the sense of the extreme and violent choices he makes, but rather he is a well done metaphor of the desire to find a community & a purpose in life when you constantly feel detatched from everything and everyone. For me, the ending of the book was incredibly satisfying and made plenty of sense. It was bittersweet in a super fucked up way.
If you can stomach it, I do think it is worth a read. It isn’t often we have these contemporary fairy tales but it really did remind me of the over the top and bizarre gore you would read in the original Grimms fairy tales & similar stories.
I found the animal violence to be fairly easy to skim without missing tangible points. While the scenes are undeniably upsetting and graphic, I will say that the violence against people in the book are definitely more graphic which I did kinda appreciate.
This is a wild read and I think the beginning and dialogue are the weakest points. This is gonna sound insane but trust me: when the cows start to talk is when the book gets more tolerable. I think a lot of interesting essays could be written about this.
However, this book is oddly captivating and reads like a deeply disturbing urban fairy tale. The second half of the book reminded me a lot of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It is better to go into this story expecting it to read like a fairy tale & to not take the story to be “realistic” in any sense of the word.
All of the characters except for Steven (the main character) are obnoxious over the top depictions of various levels of evil or hopelessness. The dialogue, in my opinion, is the worst part of the book. It is annoying to read and never gets better.
The author really spoon feeds you way too much. He doesn’t seem to trust the art of subtle storytelling or showing rather than telling. The dialogue is more fitting of a child’s story where you have to make it clear who the “bad guy” is.
It does come across like the author or, at the very least, the main character does not like women whatsoever or anything with a vagina. There is a good deal of vaginal mutilation in this book & a focus on using that as a form of reaffirming Steven’s sense of masculinity. I do think that was the point but I also feel like the author did not convey this particularly well and it made me roll my eyes several times.
I do not usually comment on the physical descriptors of characters too often, but I have to admit that the book is actually super fatphobic and I mean that for real. Steven’s mother is obese and every scene with her makes a point to mention her fatness in revolting ways meant to emphasize her “evilness” essentially. Like I said, the characters are cartoonishly bad.
There is also a super random use of the n-word for absolutely no reason and I mean NO reason. It was so out of left field I had to reread it ten times over because I kept trying to understand where it came from. The book has nothing to do with racism whatsoever & it is one of the cows that randomly says it? It is toward middleish of the book.
The violence is a bit obnoxious and it reminds me of try hards doing their best to use shock and disgust rather than writing better, but the writing itself actually is good beyond that and the development of Steven’s character arc is surprisingly well done. This might seem wild to admit given the context of this book, but Steven is a weirdly relatable main character and I have to give props to the author for that.
He isn’t relatable in the sense of the extreme and violent choices he makes, but rather he is a well done metaphor of the desire to find a community & a purpose in life when you constantly feel detatched from everything and everyone. For me, the ending of the book was incredibly satisfying and made plenty of sense. It was bittersweet in a super fucked up way.
If you can stomach it, I do think it is worth a read. It isn’t often we have these contemporary fairy tales but it really did remind me of the over the top and bizarre gore you would read in the original Grimms fairy tales & similar stories.
I found the animal violence to be fairly easy to skim without missing tangible points. While the scenes are undeniably upsetting and graphic, I will say that the violence against people in the book are definitely more graphic which I did kinda appreciate.
This is a wild read and I think the beginning and dialogue are the weakest points. This is gonna sound insane but trust me: when the cows start to talk is when the book gets more tolerable. I think a lot of interesting essays could be written about this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Death of parent
Minor: Racial slurs and Abortion
The Girls by Emma Cline
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Apt Pupil by Stephen King
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book is deeply disturbing and not for the weak stomached. I think the reason this book hits so hard is due to its realism. This book is about the dangerous pipeline to nazism that can occur when someone becomes a little too interested in WWII.
But I think now more than ever this book is a critical read. This shows the inner workings of a kid who starts off innocuous and his descent into extreme bigotry and how kids can be groomed into horrific ideologies. It is a short, quick read and it is the kind of thing you won’t put down until you are done. There is no relief or happy endings here. It is just one fucked up short story. Read at your own risk.
As a caution, there is vivid animal cruelty and death with a cat that is vile to read. There is an equally disturbing sexual assault sequence in a dream.
But I think now more than ever this book is a critical read. This shows the inner workings of a kid who starts off innocuous and his descent into extreme bigotry and how kids can be groomed into horrific ideologies. It is a short, quick read and it is the kind of thing you won’t put down until you are done. There is no relief or happy endings here. It is just one fucked up short story. Read at your own risk.
As a caution, there is vivid animal cruelty and death with a cat that is vile to read. There is an equally disturbing sexual assault sequence in a dream.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail