The Consumer

Rating:
Summary: Not thrilling
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. Most of the reviews said it was sick and twisted, which I happen to like, but it was boring. Very wordy. Too much like "literature" to be sick and twisted.

Rating:
Summary: Way Out In Left Field
Review: If you are into raping children, animal cruelty, incest and deriving sexual pleasure from gross imagery then this is your book. I, myself, am not into that sort of thing. I prefer my horror supernatural, unexplained, freaky and/or occultish. So as far as the Horror factor, I give it a 2, the Disgusting factor a 10, and the Way Out In Left Field factor a 100. Gira is quite obsessed with description as well. Sometimes your imagination can run away with you and that can get scary. But not in this book. It is quite detailed. Too detailed.

Rating:
Summary: More Disgusting than Horror
Review: If you are into raping children, animal cruelty, incest and sexual satisfaction from disgusting imagery, then this is the book for you. I personally don't care for these kinds of things so this book was just not the kind of reading I like. So, I give it a horror factor of 2, a disgust factor of 10 and a way out in left field factor of 100.

Rating:
Summary: one hundrend percent pure ecstasy and self identifacation.
Review: If you thought before that you could never find a book that would totally satisfy you if your an admitted exception to the norm (even if you don't want to be), then here . The description is like none other and plots short but articulate. A rare find and pure ecstasy. Props to Mr. Gira.

Rating:
Summary: Beauty Lies in the Eye...
Review: In all the reviews of this book, one essentially descriptive word is missing: Beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: for those who love gore
Review: It is difficult to review this book without using the four letter word. Well, be prepared to encounter all kinds of bodily secretions then (yes, all you can think off) with some raping of children, eating of human flesh and the like thrown in as well. All that in a very clear, detailed and rather detached language which would make good reading formally if there was another content. So if you have a very good stomach and love to keep reading about gore through 47 short stories - go ahead, otherwise - beware.

Rating:
Summary: Intense, insightful, hypervivid.
Review: Michael Gira probes the darkest corners of the human soul and brings them to life and light through splendid metaphor. 'The Consumer' is one of the most intense, draining, and memorable books I've read in quite a long while.

Rating:
Summary: Agony, ecstasy... everything, really...
Review: Mike Gira has been raping the minds of millions for years now as the instigator/lead terrorist for the bloodthirsty underground band Swans. Pick up FILTH or GREED and feel the skin peel off in sheets. Then pick up THE CONSUMER, which does the same thing in words. Absolutely no corner of the mind, no matter how remote or horrible, is left untouched, and that's the main reason for its beauty. It's better than real: it's hyper-real; it forces you to come back to your world with newly-opened eyes. If you're squeamish or easily offended, put this down and walk away -- you'll be diving into a bottomless tub of hell. Trust me. Really.

Rating:
Summary: Cold, clinical, beautiful and horrifying...
Review: The Consumer is not for everyone. I feel that it's a beautiful work and a very pure vision . . . full of horrifying, clinically written and presented "fairy tales" of human suffering and misery. This is a book of pain. There are some truly disturbing images in this collection. I was reading works by Peter Sotos (Index) and Irvin Welsh (Filth) during the same period as this one, and it fit in quite nicely. If you don't like to wince or have the wind knocked out of you by words, then don't even pick this up.

Rating:
Summary: Cold, clinical, beautiful and horrifying...
Review: The Consumer is not for everyone. I feel that it's a beautiful work and a very pure vision . . . full of horrifying, clinically written and presented "fairy tales" of human suffering and misery. This is a book of pain. There are some truly disturbing images in this collection. I was reading works by Peter Sotos (Index) and Irvin Welsh (Filth) during the same period as this one, and it fit in quite nicely. If you don't like to wince or have the wind knocked out of you by words, then don't even pick this up.