Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Chaperos by Dennis Cooper

46 reviews

danimacuk's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Excrement

Minor: Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, and Abortion

junebug333's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Check the trigger warnings before reading. It is a graphic and dark book, pretty descriptive. but everyone has certain limits on what they want to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

j_yarbrough's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

paulus_on_the_rocks's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Voir les TW (j'insiste lourdement)

J'ai ouvert le bouquin en me disant joyeusement, enfin un auteur qui ne se fout pas de notre gueule quand il décide d'écrire du cul. Oh boy. Cooper ne se fout pas de notre gueule sur absolument aucun sujet.

C'est à la fois le roman le plus horrible et le plus intelligent que j'ai lu depuis très, très longtemps, si ce n'est toujours. J'ai vraiment hésité à lui mettre un full five stars car ce n'est absolument pas un livre que je conseillerais (cf le nombre ahurissant de TW) mais, en même temps, je l'ai trouvé extrêmement intéressant du point de vue narratif.

Si vous n'avez pas l'estomac fragile et que vous aimez le concept de unreliable narrator, foncez, mais j'insiste : ce n'est vraiment, vraiment pas du petit lait, le livre est extrêmement graphique.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

saccharinewoe's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

insane, depraved, disturbing, morbid, literally every synonym related to these words runs through my head as i reflect on this. but it used the epistolary format so well to explore the depravity of human beings and the pervasiveness of sexual violence in internet culture due to anonymity (more specifically in the early 2000s but its still like this now). at the heart of this is the basis of interactions on the internet and how easily a lie can become the truth - if enough people believe in it. i can't say i enjoyed this because it genuinely describes like the most fucked up things that could happen to a person but i do recognise it for what it is and what it imparted.

idk how to trigger warn this sufficiently because i feel like it requires like every single trigger warning under the sun 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Terminal illness

msdiamar's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

lovesimon's review against another edition

5.0

This book was so hard to read, but so gripping I couldn't put it down. Really interesting exploration of sexuality, Internet culture, and the psychological profile of the Internet scammer which is a type of person I find endlessly fascinating. Really cool play with form. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

dannycrimes's review against another edition

dark funny

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

4.75

You know those books that are fantastic, but you cannot ever tell another human being to read them? This is one of those. Brilliantly written whilst being incredibly tough to get through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness and Terminal illness

Brief but graphic depictions of deliberate spreading of HIV

aknaag's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

4.75

Girl…. This was something… and this was a lot.

The setting and the pacing of this book and overall layout is different to conventional books, it’s fun, which I enjoyed! 

Idk if it’s because of the way I downloaded it but the authors name and the book title  weirdly appears in the middle of almost every page that caught me off guard sm times, idk if it’s downloaded error or something but I got used it midway so that’s fine.

The plot…. Ugh the plot.. deplorable. So tragic and just makes you question and shake your head at humanity honestly.

There’s this spectrum in which sex is written and viewed in books, it’s either realistically romantic and spicy or realistically degrading and abhorrent. And it was very much the latter. At least that’s how I felt. Just needed a shower and the strong feel to be celibate.

Tragic character/(s) but such an interesting rabbit hole of a mystery. The way it kept unfolding really had me gagged. Just overall, the plot ATE. 

If you’re a person with a ding dong, going to read this book? I highly suggest you mentally prepare for it because the detailed scenes of violence sometimes became too much for me and I can’t imagine how you’d feel having a wiener.

Honestly, this ATE. I finished it in a DAY. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

angelicardale's review against another edition

this book is disgusting honestly lol .. exquisite corpse had more tact than a single page of this book did (and that was another one-star book for me). i hate that i had no idea what i was getting myself into. for all the graphic and horrific depictions of pedophilia and csa in this book (that read less like tragedy and more like torture p0rn, tbh), i really really wish it'd been explicitly stated in the blurb, or at the very least, in a content warnings list ANYWHERE in the book. there's not even an author's note. as a writer, i understand to a certain degree, but it's just plain negligent to not warn readers or categorize it in the right genre !!!! this was under general fiction at barnes & noble. it should be considered splatterpunk tbh. anyway screw tiktok for recommending me this book it was awful and not worth finishing imo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail