Pro: Engaging, Con: Sadistic
344187
This is an engaging, clever and well-realized but formulaic book. I would not give it to my middle-grader because of it revels in sadism and violence. If you're OK with mothers being burned in front of their children's eyes and torture of children, then it's probably about four stars.
888697
I know  in books  there  is  a certain  degree  of exaggeration,  but  the  number of insane  andobsessive  psychos represented in one series  is a bit  off the charts.
Admittedly,  it makes for  sizzling dramatic  reading,  so although  it  may represent  some parts of America  as over-run by psychopathic  murderers,  at least we have a decent  story.
134989
Kidnapping books will go to great lengths to portray the psychology of the antagonist, going so far as to glorify the type of "monster" that would have such depraved inclinations. Our society is fascinated with serial killers and the idea that women secretly "want" to be raped and brutalized by powerful men. In the real world, kidnappers forever scar their victims; the kidnapped often die on the inside, while their bodies assume other identities, or become nothing at all.

This is "Four Days."

At its core, this is the story of a death process that takes four days to complete. Now, I'm not spoiling the story; the book is written in first-person, and the narrator tells you, in the first few chapters, that the events are "past-tense." Why is this important? Why am I mentioning this?
This is not a story that is designed to "entertain" in the sense that you're going to read about a vicious man and the reason why he's inclined to hurt and possess authors with his presence. Instead of exploring the psychology of "The Monster" (the character is never named, which suitably reinforces the concepts I've already mentioned), we're exploring the death of a person. The brutalization is not made erotic, nor is it ever sexy. Far too many variations of this story use the story as a vehicle to focus on the brutal acts and all the details involved.

"Four Days" features a sense of the unreal, as if it couldn't possibly be happening; Emily Cullen, the victim, has the ability to communicate with wayward spirits. This relationship with another plane of existence seems to highlight Emily's introduction to another version of her soul, as The Monster continues to torture her and kill the woman who lives inside of Emily.
Another interesting component came to light near the book's conclusion; the family's reaction to the entire event seems incredibly realistic and appalling.

Dark, disturbing, and raw; "Four Days" isn't a story of survival, but of destruction at the hands of another anonymous monster... This is a book about the power of evil.
1195309
American Psycho is the most dark, violent, and graphic novel I have ever set upon to read.  The violence is told in a detailed, nauseating first person narrative, and many of the scenes are hard to read through.  Some reviewers have called said scenes psycho-porn, and refer to his descriptions of other peoples appearance as trite.  Others infer that this book is about the apathy of the public. Patrick Bateman, the protagonist(or at least the main character), makes a killing at his job, he's flattering, good-looking, and brutally kills people, Often in public and during lite hours.  The inference is that people simply don't care about a brazen serial killer in their misted. I disagree with many people on this book.

  This book is a perfect portrait of a serial killer.  It doesn't spare you any of the excruciating details: violence or lunch.  If you decide to undertake this book be ready to read pages and pages about what people are wearing.  Many complain "I understand when Ellis writes these descriptions we are supposed to see how judgmental and narcissistic Patrick is, but why do I have to keep reading these descriptions all the way through the book?" (paraphrased).  From a different approach, what would people think if the descriptions were taken out halfway through? Some might think Patrick is evolving.  This is written from Patrick's perspective, nothing is edited out.  On the positive side Patrick is the one who cares about what people are wearing, not me.  So very early on I began to skim over these parts.  Don't even get me started on the chapters about music.

  Another qualm is the seeming lack of motivation in the killings.  Motivation is a good link in your average murder.  Money, power, and anger are classic examples.  Even delusional killers have a twisted motivation, but Patrick is different.  Patrick Bateman is a compulsive killer, he needs no motivation.  He does it, because it turns him on.  Ted Bundy said "there are two things I think when I see a pretty woman. The first is I'd like to take her out and show her a good time.  The second is " I wonder what her head looks like on a pike"(The quote is pretty accurate, but I'm doing it from memory).  Patrick uses this quote in the book, and one can easily infer he feels the same way.

  My final problem is with one's who say the violence in this book is egregrious.  exactly What were you expecting when you picked up a book titled "American Psycho"?  This book is violent, because Patrick is violent, and sick.  If the violence was dulled down then the book would suffer.  Patrick would be a comical figure.  Your kids would read it for theme's, and motifs as a part of their Highschool curriculum.  Patrick was made to be hated.  I doubt Ellis wrote this book thinking people would sympathize with the sick freak.  The one accession I will make is that it is psycho-porn, pure and simple.  Just like the movie Patrick rents every other night where the hole is bored into the the girls skull with a drill.  He masturbates to it, just as I'm sure some have masturbated to this book.  I find that disturbing, but there's plenty of other stuff on the internet they could look at anyhow.

  I'm against the idea that this book is about American apathy.  While it may be a fleeting thought the focus stays on Bateman.  It's a fictional account that is suprisingly gritty, and real.  Reading books I have always had a certain out of body experience.  Books allow you to travel to the ends of the earth, and see the world from the perspective of another.  In this book you travel into the mind of Patrick, and see through his eyes.  His ambiguity and uncertainty, his humor, his self-loathing, his bleak outlook, his narcissism, and the inter-workings of an American Psycho.
741578
==-
Fascinating, engaging book. Unlike most of these books, this one has lots of sexy rape details, though not as much as Perfect Victim. The many photos allow you to imagine this scummy junkie doing all that stuff to the helpless little girl.

The style is unusual. It's written as if it's happening now, rather than in the past. It works very well. One thing I like is how she slowly accepts that she will live there instead of wanting to go home. Elizabeth Fritzl never did. She also begins to genuinely like these kidnapper-rapists as a way of psychologically adapting. That is sexy, too.

I didn't like that the guy kept giving her cats and then changing his mind and taking them away, but he didn't hurt them, which I was afraid he would do.

Some of it was heartbreaking, like when they said they had a surprise for her. It was her birthday and she thought it was a present. But the "surprise" was that the woman kidnapper had a new haircut. That was sad.

One flaw was that there were no photos of the inside of her prison room and none of the man and woman who did these things to her.

But all the negatives are more than made up for by the occasional gem of unusually-detailed sex descriptions. Most girls who write these memoirs refuse to give the reader what the reader bought the book to read. They like to pretend that they wrote it "to help other people" somehow, knowing damn well they're trying to get rich by telling what was done to her. It's dishonest. Either sell your sexy story or STFU about the whole thing. But don't try to fool the readers into buying a book of moralistic B.S.  Everyone knows this is just polite porn. In public we pretend to be outraged, and in private we pretend to be participants.

The best incident for nubbin-rubbin' was when she said how, at 13, she was handcuffed to the wall naked and the guy took two hours to get her legs tied in just the right position. But he had to go somewhere, and she describes waiting for him all afternoon while tied naked in a "humiliating, degrading, uncomfortable" position.  It's a good thing I read that on a screen, because I couldn't have held a hardcopy book: it aroused me so much I had to masturbate with two hands while trying to imagine what that position might be.

The only thing I don't like about the book is the lack of any description of anal sex. I'm sure the guy must have used that opening too, but she never mentioned it. Buyt all in all, it was far better than the average little girl kidnap-rape true crime story.

It was certainly better than Natalia Kampuch's book, in which she says that the guy only did "minor sexual harassment" but never raped her. That's ridiculous, since he made her walk around naked for 8 years wearing nothing but leg warmers. She then contradicts herself by saying that she wishes to keep all the sexual things they did a secret because they are private between the two of them. If they never had  sex, there would be nothing to keep secret. It also said that it contradicts what the cops said they found: a DVD with scenes of her being tied up and  raped for "cruel games."

The guy may have made Kampuch into a good sex slave, but he sure didn't turn her into a good liar. What makes me most mad isn't that she bait-and-switch ripped us off for the good part of the story; it's that she smugly believes she fooled us with her lies.

I give this book  two cl1ts up: five stars as a fascinating story and four stars as fuel for enthusiastic masturbation. Guys can pretend it's them doing it to the young teenager while they yank off, and we girls can imagine we're the little girl tied to the bed while we rub ourselves to thunderous orgasm and become part of God for a few seconds.

...And don't pretend you don't do that when you read books about teenage-girl sex slaves. It's the main reason we buy them.
4593494
This is a decent book. It does exactly as advertised, describe one entire fishing trip, from dock to dock. If you're interested in learning about this, certainly give this book a try.

I support ethical fishing. Have no problem whatsoever with it. I was reading along without a problem, until about 2/3 of the way through the book, when Greenlaw describes the torture of sharks. Apparently, when a fishing trip isn't going well because sharks keep stealing the bait, Greenlaw and her crew (and surely many other crews as well), in order to change their luck, like to torture sharks to death. Greenlaw gleefully describes the process. They hoist a live shark into the air and jab at it repeatedly with very sharp objects. They then wrap the live shark in kerosene-soaked rags, and set the shark on fire. Greenlaw describes how the shark violently struggles and struggles while burning, until finally its struggles lessen, and then cease. She also comments that she likes the smell of the burning flesh.

This is horrifying. Anyone who derives pleasure from torturing any creature to death has a chunk of conscience and humanity missing. And the casual telling of this torture, as if it is just another thing, only underscores the unthinking sadism.
282882
WARNING: This book has depictions of the torture, mutilation, rape, and murder of abducted women.

I found those scenes disturbing long after I finished the book, and I thought they were unnecessary to the otherwise decent plot. If you can be upset by violent or horror content, you may want to skip this book.
3633666
At one point or another, I wanted to slap nearly all of the POV characters in this book, not to mention several non-POV people as well, including the little boy who actually gets slapped. That's not to detract from the writing or enjoyment of the book (although with so many unlikeable characters, enjoyment may be the wrong word). Most everyone is unfaithful, drunk, cruel to their loved ones, and/or seething with violent rage. (Of course, this is Australia.) And remarkably, though the book was intended to pose the ethical dilemma: is it okay to hit a misbehaving child who's not yours? Nearly all the characters, other than the boy's mother, end up saying yes, or at least, I'm glad SOMEONE did it.
1404337
There are no scenes containing naughty behaviors with animals. However, there are some disturbing scenes that might bother some viewers. One is during a story about a woman who loved a bull, and in the end it's killed by angry skin-heads. I don't know if the home movie shown was realy of the men killing the poor animal, and then slapping the bloody skin on the woman.. was real, or not...I'm hoping that it was not. There are other parts where pics. of skinned/dead animals will appear, which are distasteful in my opinion. However, the over all dvd was full of interesting information about the people who love animals in an xxx sort of way. If you liked the movie "zoo" (about Mr. Hands) then you'll like this dvd. However, some of the people interviewed are boring and long winded, but it's still worth seeing. Even for college students who are writing a paper on this topic would find this informative. The reason why I didn't give this movie all stars was due to some of the interviews conducted. I won't give specifics, but in my opinion there was some info. which was not informative, so why add it in? I had to fast forward parts of the dvd...too long.
681461
Since the author is a psychologist, I think she judged well how to keep her audience's attention. However, I detest stories where the " bad guy" gets away with it. I have mixed feelings.
3740089
The author claims that "Biblical child rearing...worked well for thousands of years." But it is not true. It did not work well at all because it created violent humans and parents. This belief in and the practice of violence against children continues to create to this very day not only violent humans and parents, but also the wars and violence that turn our planet into such a dangerous, brutal nightmare. At the child trauma academy, we can learn about the devastating and horrible consequences of violence against children. As the developing brain forms 90% of the connections between the neurons during the first 4 years of life according to the EXPERIENCES that a child makes, violence is a learned behavior, like the language that we speak. Also this author learned to treat children with violence in his childhood, but he does not care to take an honest look at this brutal and inhumane practice and does not at all take seriously what impact the fight and flight response and the terrible fear, which ALL physical attacks cause for the bodies of children and adults, have on this developing brain and for the health, the well being and self-love of a child, and later the adult. It is a crime to advise and practice violence against ANY human being, but particularly against the most vulnerable and defenseless humans -- children. The consequences for society can be studied by reading the work of Alice Miller.
4150539
Four stars is maybe a little high, but three would have been a little low.  Others have described the set up, so I'll be brief on that.  Caitlin Strong is a former Texas Ranger forced to resign after she used a bit too much violence to obtain information.  Cort Wesley Masters is a former mob enforcer recently released from prison when DNA proved that he was NOT actually guilty of the particular crime of which he was convicted.  Events bring them together when connections appear between the disappearance of Strong's husband an the framing of Masters for murder of a Ranger.

Land uses his story to explore the idea of "benign interrogation" without lecturing. Was Strong's violence - inflicted to find a friend's killer - justified?  What makes her different from Masters?  At a more "macro" level, the story raises the issue of whether "non-invasive" (i.e., we don't kill or cut off body parts) interrogation is ultimately less horrible than the bloody kind, and whether we can justify it.

All of this is presented without preachiness, and adds interest to the basic "good guys saving world from bad guys" thriller plot.  On the down side, I did not think Masters' character was entirely successful.  As is the case with other literary "good bad guys" (e.g., Robert B Parker's "Hawk") one has trouble believing that the character ever really did anything bad - he's too nice.  Land explains this as a change in Masters brought on by a number of events, althout it's pretty hard to picture Masters as having been a mob guy.  Still, this is a fantasy (scary mean guy on our side) that readers are accustomed to accepting.

There is another violent scary guy in the story who just seems extraneous and really not believable at all. He purports to be a Venezuelan secret service colonel, of peasant background, who reads Kierkegaard.  Huh? His scenes lost me.  What's he doing in this book?

Finally, the basic doomsday plot.  It was OK and even a creative rule-the-world idea; but somehow not fully satisfying to me.  I think the bad guy was too consumingly evil and powerful - made him a little cartoonish.  This is a not-infrequent issue with thrillers, but this particular cartoon villain bothered me more than many, possibly because the other characters were better executed.

In all, an entertaining read, with more thoughtfulness than many thrillers.
571894
If you want CARNIVORE, you might find it cheaper as part of several DVD sets, including&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Bloody-Murder-Bloody-Murder-2-Junior-Severed-Children-Of-The-Living-Dead-Creepy-Crawlers-Deadly-Species-Carnivore/dp/B0085H66LW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Bloody Murder, Bloody Murder 2, Junior, Severed, Children Of The Living Dead, Creepy Crawlers, Deadly Species, & Carnivore</a>.

True, CARNIVORE is not a great film. Not only is the story unoriginal, but it never really gets moving. It's a SLOW film, with much yakking and wandering about an empty house.

A government scientist, working alone in an isolated suburban house, is killed by the monster he's created. A rubber-suited creature with almost comical mannerisms (the way he keeps withdrawing his arm, playfully, as the scientist tries to give him an injection -- right before he kills the scientist -- but why?)

The military learns of his death because video cameras transmitted it to Washington. Which is good, because that scientist was the ONLY employee working on the project, in that house in Illinois. HUH?

So the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency dispatches a "crack team" to drive over there and tranquilize the monster, which is presumed to still be in the house. Apparently, there is no one in all the state of Illinois that the federal government can send. No field officers or local military bases.

Instead, this crack team must drive from D.C. to Illinois Not fly. But drive. And not too fast. They can't break any speed limits because "We don't want to call attention to our mission."

The team consists of two Secret Service types (black suits, dark glasses, curt dialog) and a leggy blonde  in a business suit. The Secret Service types discuss their Uzi machine-guns while the leggy blonde warns them not to use guns, because the monster must be tranquilized.

Meanwhile, four teenagers break into the abandoned house, hoping to party, get drunk, have sex. Naturally, the monster finds them...

Some comical cops also arrive, as do the government agents. Yet considering all the people present, there is a surprisingly LOW body count. Practically no one gets killed.

MUCH of the film is of the teenagers wandering about the house, exchanging aimless dialogue. I suppose it's meant to be "filler." The cops also exchange the usual filler dialogue -- debating the merits of junk food vs. health food. Even so, this film is very short. About 75 minutes, not including credits.

One nice thing about CARNIVORE is the colored lighting, mainly blue. It adds a touch of atmosphere to a largely drab film. (Perhaps the colored light were inspired by&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Suspiria/dp/B000S0GYRU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Suspiria</a>&nbsp;and its copycats? -- NO, I'm not saying CARNIVORE is anywhere near as great as&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Suspiria/dp/B000S0GYRU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Suspiria</a>)

According to the IMDb, CARNIVORE began shooting in 1989, and it shows. The big hair, the clothes (nearly as ridiculous as in&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Demon-Wind/dp/B00009RS0K/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Demon Wind</a>), the old cars, the hair band music at film's end. Instead of cell phones, one teen talks on an old landline in his room -- at least it was push button. The cop has a large walkie-talkie.

CARNIVORE is listed as a 2000 film. That's how long it took to find "completion funds" and distribution.
90588
This is the first Aztec Mystery I've read.  The story is smooth and well-written, though it appears that one needs to read the previous novel ("Demon of the Air") to fully understand the characters and their relationships, as events seem to begin immediately upon the conclusion of the previous book.

The strength of the book is its nuanced depiction of Aztec culture, including religion, food, dress, social class, architecture, etc.  Unfortunately another evident aspect of Aztec culture is unrelenting brutality - people are beaten, choked, kicked, clubbed, teeth broken out with a knife, held over smoking fires, dunked in the water, etc.  When not being tortured by others, the people practice constant bloodletting in "sacrifice" to the gods as characters cut their earlobes, other body parts, etc. and let their blood flow to show their devotion to various deities.  Things, places, and people wear a patina of blood and gore (one can only imagine the flies.)  The main character gets beaten or brutalized in nearly every chapter, often passing out or vomiting up his last meal, I imagined him as a welter of bruises and cuts.  Characters are frequently motivated by the threat of death or torture, or a torturous death (fast death if you cooperate, agonizing death if you don't - the characters' capacity for descriptive threat is sometimes exhausted as several times a character is threatened with "the most agonizing death you can imagine.") It gets to the point that the brutality becomes monotonous, which perhaps is the intention, to convey what Aztec life was like.  The impression I get of Aztec culture is that it was a heirarchy of squalid cruelty, filth, blood, and misery for all but the highest classes.  Even the most beautiful expression of Aztec culture, the featherworking, is tainted because you imagine the fate of all the beautiful birds yielding up their mounds of feathers.

In the midst of all this cruelty, it is hard to imagine Yaotl's evident love for his missing son (who we don't meet until the very end of the book).  Even Yaotl's own parents beat and slap him at every opportunity.

As a result, it was difficult to have much care or concern for the characters, all beating up on each other.  I read this book not for the enjoyment of the story but out of curiousity about Aztec culture.

One slightly jarring item is the characters' use of English idioms - though the author is "translating" characters speaking Aztec, it still seems odd to hear Aztecs using modern slang, and slightly detracts from the authenticity.

(SPOILER ALERT) - The story does not resolve at the end - it's a cliffhanger - what a letdown...
2660580
Disgusting!!! So much violence. Lack of real imagination and lack of tenderness that in fairy tales balances the cruelty of violence. If a young one or even a child sees it before sleeping he will have some nightmares. Perhaps minds are different now. Think that our mothers and fathers used to recite or read to us snow white before sleeping!!!

But the actors were very good and the same for the photography.
439432
This book pretends to be a scientific study of "evil," but in fact it is just a bunch of entertaining stories of people being nasty to each other, interspersed with "analysis" that amounts to little more than the mouthing of platitudes and banalities. We are told that perpetrators of antisocial acts do not consider themselves evil, and often consider their acts justified, or not of great importance. We are told that people seek revenge because their self-esteem is threatened. We are told that drugs and alcohol do not induce people to perform evil deeds, but rather allow people to perform deeds they would otherwise have restrained themselves from performing. We are told that many evil-doers are self-centered and uncaring of others. We are told that we could all behave in an "evil" manner under the right circumstances.
This is all drivel, of course, masquerading as science. None of these statements is subjected to anything like scientific scrutiny. Most of them are obvious (e.g. perpetrators say they don't care about their victims) or false (revenge occurs because people's self-esteem is threatened) or meaningless (most of the sentences in the book fall under this category, since most of the emotions and forms of consciousness described are of the offhand, pop psychology type).
So, if you want to read about lots of dirty stuff people have done to one another, this is your book. And if you like to think your reading is enlightening and informative without actually dealing with the difficult analytical and quantitative tasks of modeling and testing human behavior, this is your book.
My only consolation in purchasing this book is that is was cheap, yet quite nicely put together. Also, it gives me a chance to write a nasty review. I take revenge no doubt beause of a threat to my self-esteem, no doubt.
3466582
This is well-done, to a degree. HOWEVER, if you are sensitive to violence including bloody whippings that go on WAY too long, rapes, women being slugged in the stomach, etc., best to pass on this one. I heard about the extended rape scene of the male lead in the second volume and decided not to continue watching this series.