Maybe it’s from being a clinician in my real life who deals with amputation and open ulcers frequently, or maybe it’s from having a four year old and a dog and dealing with their messes, I found it was more of a metaphor for the characters lives that Stokoe used those elements. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Seriously though, if you are easily offended, have a weak stomach or have any triggers at all, don't bother. This kind of problem has been well studied in the case of de Sade, where repetition plays a central part in the creation of the pornographic effect. I’m going to do my best to stay spoiler free, but I wanted to just say – this is a book that if you need any sort of trigger warning, you’ll not make it very far into it.

The cow, part of a herd that has escaped the slaughter house and now lives in tunnels under the city streets, along with a herd of other cows, wants to convince Steven to help them stop Cripps by killing him. There is a message and there are some hilarious parts for those of us who like our humour pitch black.I knew how violent, bloody, gritty and possibly gross this book was supposed to be but little did I realize it was true. Matthew Stokoel has the ability to create a profound satire mixed in with cannibalism, bestiality, gore, sexual perversion, abuse, self mutilation.

His paraplegic dog, named Dog, was crippled years back by his mother, known affectionately throughout as the Hagbeast.Matthew Stokoe gives you exactly what you get, and doesn't insult you by giving anything less or more than the trip itself, and I love that. I foresee drooling adverbs and slippery tongues as antilymphocyte drugs are injected into the pericardium. Despite its relatively minor length, reading it in one sitting might have you not leaving your shower for the rest of the day, and spreading it out over a week is kind of like staring at the sun. During the course of this relatively short novel the main character (Steven) is involved with (whether as a player or a spectator) bestiality, coprophagia, rape, murder, and mutilation of such grand and graphic extremes that I cannot recommend this book to anyone.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I tried - I really tried and all I could think to compare it to was Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal". Christine : Well, hold on there human boy, I’m not saying I subscribe to your scatological taboo-busting testosterone-fuelled steampunk gorefest.If you have a weak stomach or are badly effected by abusive situations, you may not enjoy it so much. Like Citizen Kane, it’s a “rags to riches to rags” story, and these are hard to pull off because they don’t obey classic storytelling beats. They are hard to find, though, and the book is most assuredly not for any but the most stout and difficult-to-shock reader.