Reviews

Depraved by Bryan Smith

shrikebait's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I picked this book up based on the gnarly cover and was not disappointed. Depraved felt like watching a gory horror movie with just about all of the "classic" extreme horror tropes. 

It was interesting seeing how each character evolves as they commit heinous acts to survive. I usually don't like "where are they now"- type epilogues, but this one is an exception. It really hammers in the lingering, irreversible effects of that dark day. 

As with all extreme horror, heed content warnings. Depraved is especially heavy on SA. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Slavery, Rape, Confinement, Ableism, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Torture, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Blood, Child death, Murder, and Trafficking

Moderate: Car accident, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Incest, Sexism, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Misogyny, Racism, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Infertility

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

joanneburns's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

tiannahreads's review

4.5

This was definitely depraved in all different manners. The author takes you on a journey with a few different individuals that happened upon the wrong little town off the beaten path. I felt like it kept the story really well paced and helped to keep my interest the whole time. 

The narration was great. This was my first read by this author, & I definitely want to check out the rest of the books in this series in the future! 

punkersfictionreads's review

Dnf 30% in

bibliograflieg's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This was... brutal. (Duh, it's splatterpunk; what am I talking about?) This is honestly not my type of book, but I think that Bryan Smith did a really good job getting into each character's head, which made the whole book even more disturbing. He also wove the interlocking stories together really well (even though I fully didn't realize that the Prestons and Maynards were different clans and that Michelle and Justine were different people for over half of the book - that was honestly my fault for not paying attention and speeding the audiobook up too much and not the fault of Smith's craftsmanship). This was gross, which was the point, but there was an attention to craft that I really respected. This was incredibly difficult to rate because it's not my preferred subgenre, but here is my attempt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Car accident, Confinement, Death of parent, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Infertility, and Incest

beefmaster's review against another edition

4.0

Hardcore

lucasm12333's review against another edition

5.0

Wow

This book surpassed all of my expectations. I was expecting the generic gory hardcore horror with a cliche storyline.

Not here. The author kept the pace at warp speed and really fleshed out the characters. There was plenty of Gore but it fit the story. Some authors just seem to add Gore to shock readers, and cover a stale story. Not Bryan Smith! This is horror done right. Fantastic!

afinalgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

“Such a pretty speech.” 

Pete shook his head. “It’s not just a speech. It’s—” 

“The Prestons ate my fiancé.”

depraved is like the hills have eyes x house of 1000 corpses and honestly reads like some wildly unrealistic fanfic - but there’s something about it that is so compelling you have to keep reading? just don’t take it seriously.

i enjoyed the multiple POVs, even though they never crossed over at any point, and i loved how fast-paced it was. it never got boring. there’s a lot of violence and sexual assault in this, like it’s constant, and i feel that’s part of the shock value the author was going for. the coping mechanism of each character are HILARIOUS.

i found the author’s style of writing a bit stilted, and some of the reactions and thought processes of the characters felt like they were written by a teenager (i don’t know how else to describe it but i know the way i wrote as a fifteen year old and this felt like that). however there was a lot that i loved, certain phrases that were just so on point and clever 👏🏼 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Body shaming, and Rape

hsheehan85's review

dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

shawn_of_the_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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