Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Le infernali macchine del desiderio del dottor Hoffman by Angela Carter

9 reviews

mykingdomforacommune's review against another edition

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CW:
Sexual violence, racism, paedophillia, gore inc cannibalism


Be warned: this review contains spoilers and mention of some truly horrific things. Please read with caution.

At which questionable scene does it becomes apparent that this book is simply not for you? Is it the two instances of gratuitous paedophillia (inc sonophilipa)? How about the cannibal natives? This book has native American ("river Indians") AND African varieties. Maybe, it's the graphic gang rape, or the prostitutes turned into animals and flayed? Or maybe it's the continued use of seriously racist stereotypes about black people in description and action?

The thing is, each instance I get. I understand the depiction of power, the consequences of the unbridled passions at the heart of humanity and the selfish, wanton destruction created via passion, though what a bleak picture!

And in the end, the relentless depiction of the grotesque became too much. At which questionable scene did I realise this book isn't for me? African "Amazonian warriors" with a cannibalistic appetite.
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squidknees's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

70s erotic fiction. Surreal porn with plot told through the lens of an unreliable narrator. Characters are diverse but subject to heavy fetishization.
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miekookeim's review against another edition

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

3.0

Despite almost putting down the book halfway through, I’m glad I read it; it was an adventure. The multiple gratuitous, graphic, and nonconsensual sex/rape scenes made much of the book difficult to stomach and are a large thing to overlook, but if one is capable of doing so, Carter’s writing is captivating and the vignettes of Desiderio’s journey surreal. 
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findingashlie's review against another edition

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1.0

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leanna_vera's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

1.0

This book started out with so much promise but quickly got too vulgar for me.
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toffishay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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

2.75

Just a very strange book overall with some heavy topics and hard to read.
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charlottevarela's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-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

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jake_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

3.75

This is a picaresque, grotesque, burlesque, carnivalesque, Kafkaesque adventure New Wave science-fiction satirical philosophical work of fiction, one which to a Classicist evokes Petronius and Lucian, to others might evoke anything from Philip K. Dick to Wells to innumerable other writers whose work I have not yet read, among whom are philosophers like Wittgenstein and Freud, thinkers clearly capable of inspiring science fiction with a degree of originality rarely seen.

That was one sentence, and one of my primary issues with this book was the author's tendency to use long, convoluted sentences for absolutely no reason. Yet at times the prose was masterful; certain characters were drawn as well as any I have come across, while certain philosophical or satirical observations were made with a combination of academic rationality and wonder-inducing profundity. It was this prose which carried me headlong through the narrative's twists and turns, and it really does twist and turn. On several occasions I had persuaded myself to immediately remove this book from my possession and gift it to a charity shop having finished reading it, such were the graphic scenes described... But soon enough I was on board again, reading with relish, delighting at the ridiculous marvels of this Odyssean journey. In the end, I can assertively say I enjoyed it, and that this novel can stand alongside not just New Wave works but New Weird works as a piece of startling and unsurpassable originality.

This book is similar to the following books I have read:
The San Veneficio Canon by Michael Cisco
Celebrant by Michael Cisco
Satyricon by Petronius
The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G. Wells
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake
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sanafarooqui's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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