Cows

This book, albeit feeling like a fever dream and being very disturbing at times, really provoked thought on different subjects that are relevant today. The thirst for power, becoming what you hated, spreading what you hated, using people how you were used, alienation, and societal decay. My advice, if you start it then finish it. The message honestly wasn't easy to see until finishing the entire book; then it all connected like the final puzzle piece being added

This was my first ever "extreme horror" story I've read and I wasn't disappointed. HOWEVER, there were some issues. I noticed right away there were grammatical errors. I would say around 2-3 per chapter I read. There were a few run-on sentences, and the word "till" showed up a few times, but it should be spelled 'til, since it's an abbreviation of the word until. In a vacuum, it's not the biggest deal in the world, but it definitely breaks my immersion. Now for the story. It was good and bad at certain points. Even though I'm new to the extreme horror genre, I enjoyed a few of the scenes. There were scenes that made my stomach drop and my face scrunch out of disgust. This may sound like a bad thing, but I most definitely enjoyed it. But, some of the gross scenes were just kind of gross for the sake of being gross, instead of being thought provoking. (Spoilers ahead) There's scenes where the main character is fantasizing about living a normal life like he sees on TV, and times where the author highlights how horrible his mother and coworkers are. These scenes are terrific. They highlight the urban decay that was advertised when I bought it. The way his coworker casually talked about how a cow had left a scar on his lip after attempting, let's just say, "romantic?" actions with the cow and it bit him (deserved). It really highlights the depravity and evil that's in us all. It's a horrible feeling to read something truly evil and think to yourself, "that's a very human thing to do," and it really makes me think. BUUUUUT—there were many times the author mentioned poop in a very.. very detailed description. The other stuff, like his coworker, his mom, his disabled dog, and his dream to be like the people on TV are all thought provoking and deep to think about. But the poop stuff is just.. gross to be gross. Theres no symbolism, no poetry, just.. poop. Why do I need an uncomfortably detailed scene of the main character pooping. It's very clearly the authors poorly hidden fetish and it almost ruins the story. Without the poop stuff, this book would be close to perfect. But, a good chunk of the scenes and poor production make the book ALMOST unreadable. It's not a book I'd recommend to someone, but I could definitely find some enjoyment in the story.

I like a wide variety of different kinds of books, but I gravitate toward horror. Within that genre, I like it all. I like the quiet and psychological as well as the extreme and disturbing. I read this book after it was recommended to be as one of the most disturbing books ever written. That description was too tempting to pass up. However, the book is not really disturbing so much as disgusting. That, too, has its place in literature, especially within the horror genre, but it needs to be backed up with some sort of literary merit, which I ultimately found this novel to lack. Cows doesn't really read like a novel in the way most of us would understand the word. Rather, it reads as simply an attempt to break as many taboos as possible in a short 200-ish pages. Violence? Check. Incest? Yep. Bestiality? Check. Scatological humor? Double check. It's as if the author composed a list of all the vile possibilities in the world and crammed them into a single work without much regard to how to spin them into a cohesive story. Admittedly, if your fortitude is strong enough, the book will keep you reading if for no other reason than to see where it goes next. Unfortunately "where it goes next" isn't really anywhere at all. Rather than progressing, the novel continually moves sideways through over-the-top scenes that, furthermore, fail to actually build to a crescendo but instead fizzle as if the author ran out of new ideas with which to disgust the reader half-way through the book. Don't get me wrong. Some of the scenes did have a certain stomach-turning charm for fans of extreme fiction, but the plot was disjointed and ultimately went nowhere, and the characters were both flat and utterly (or, perhaps, udderly) devoid of redeeming qualities. I don't just mean the lead anti-hero of the book. I mean literally every single character in the entire novel. Anti-heroes can be interesting, and not all characters have to be likable, or even the slightest bit sympathetic. But for a book to actually be fundamentally disturbing at a deeper emotional level rather than just mildly disgusting at the superficial level, the reader needs to at least care what happens to the characters. These characters are too unlikable for the reader to root for and too incompetent for the reader to seriously root against. A book without strong characterization can also be saved by an interesting plot, but there really isn't much of a plot here. Yes, there is a plot at the most superficial of levels, and it actually begins as if the plot might take some interesting turns. But rather than living up to its early promise, it devolves rapidly into an over-the-top romp that doesn't merely strain the bounds of the suspension of disbelief; it obliterates them entirely. One can easily imagine the author reveling in his attempt to disgust the reader--and sure, those readers who didn't come of age reading far more extreme horror novels that actually manage to disturb rather than merely to disgust might find themselves queasy by the end--and there's something respectable about a book that deliberately breaks taboos, but I simply need more of a reason to care about a work than merely the fact that it does break some taboos. There needs to be a reason for it. In this case, I fail completely to detect what that reason might be.

Read this book because of the reviews, especially the 1 star reviews. The story was somewhat engaging thus the 2 star rating but there were a couple parts that actually made me gag. It’s was a fast paced book and kept my attention since I did finish it. But not too sure I’m proud of that fact.

Wow, where do I even begin in reviewing this book? For a book that is a mere 188 pages long, it sure reached out at me, slapped me around the face, sprayed its vile language, violence and cow juices all over me and then left me feeling empty and sorry for the character at the end. Reading this book was not a pleasant experience, in fact, I have never had so much trouble getting through a book in my life. Not because it was boring or slow but because its content made me stop, put it down and pick it up later. I even stopped myself from reading it before bed as one night I did that and I couldn't sleep for hours, stuck with the images that this book so kindly gave me. I have read some full on books, in fact, I am a morbid bitch who loves to find the most shocking books and movies around just to see if I can stomach them. I finally met my match. I finally found something that made me squirm. Matthew Stokoe's "Cows" was that book I never thought I would find. Cows is a simple yet hugely complex story about Stephen, a pathetic 25 year old that still lives in his mother's flat with his mother. She is a morbidly obese woman whom Stephen hates with a passion, so much so that her name is never used, she is referred to as the "Hag Beast". She has regretted having him from the day he was born and insists on reminding him of this any change she gets. He hates her for this and she hates him right back. But he fears her immensely, he also needs her, he doesn't know what life is like without her, he didn't even leave the little rented flat until he was 5 years of age, causing an intense fear of the outside world and a feeling of never ever belonging there. So he hides in his room, with his crippled dog watching television, dreaming of a life that 'normal' people have. A job, a wife, a child, a family. Something he feels he was never ever made for and may never achieve but he desperately wants to. All is about to change for Stephen as he heads off to his first day at his first job. He scores a job at the local beef slaughter house. His boss, Cripps, senses that there is something 'off'' about Stephen right away. He introduces Stephen to the slaughter room where he believes that those that kill the cows are the ones with the real power. They are the real men. They can do anything as they have taken life and watched it drain out of their bare hands. Cripps is indeed nuts and so are his workers that work in the slaughter room. Not only do they kill cows but they also use them for sexual pleasure, in the most grotesque of ways. When Stephen is introduced to killing, thanks to Cripps, he changes. He gets a taste for killing and the courage to murder. Now he feels his dream of a 'normal' life may come true. If he can build the courage to get rid of the Hag Beast, he can find someone to love and start a family. He can be like those people on television. Stephen indeed finds a girlfriend, a very unstable one at that, but a girlfriend none the less and his dream seems even closer now. He just may be able to make this happen... However, murder is addictive, the feeling of power is addictive and to increase the story's intensity, the cows at the escaped cows from the slaughter house that live in the sewers are starting to talk to him. They want Stephen to help them have their revenge so Stephen needs to decide if he wants to stay with Cripps and keep slaughtering or if he would prefer to help the cows. This book is so full of vulgarity, it is really hard to read. But don't get me wrong, the scenes in the slaughter house are actually EASIER to read than the scenes with his mother, or the scenes with his girlfriend, Lucy. His mother is hideous! She is a disgusting human being that says some horrible things and lives in a disgusting fashion. The food she serves up for him is one thing, then her vile way of speaking to him and threatening him is another. Stokoe doesn't just tell you what is going on, you can almost taste the totally intact boiled lamb stomach with the lamb's undigested food still inside it as Stephen is forced to eat is because the Hag Beast tells him so. Stokoe describes Stephen's surroundings, his miserable life, his entrapment in his current world and the world he wants to live in so descriptively that the words grab you and punch you in the face again and again and again. I have never read a book where the "C" word is used so much and more importantly, never read a book in which the word is used in the context it is used in here. "It is just a word!" I thought, that was until I read it in these sentences. This book has everything a full-on horror book could have and more! Bestiality, murder, slaughter, harsh and disgraceful relationships, a character that is obsessed with the poison inside herself who performs self surgery to find it, animal cruelty, cow stampedes smashing into people making sure that nothing remains is a big pile of blood and pulp, loneliness and isolation and the need for power. But it also has hope, dreams, love, and a tremendous need to belong. If you can find all these things buried in amongst the creative sentences and gore that is. I understood Stephen to a degree. Feeling how he felt, just wanting a home, a place to fit in, someone to look up to him. That is what kept me reading, to see where his journey would take him. Even when the book got quite bizarre and the talking cows come in, it still kept me reading, wondering, what was Stephen going to do next. And when all his hopes and dreams come crashing down around him, as a reader, you expected it but at the same time you cannot help but feel for him anyway. His loneliness and isolation makes you feel so empty inside and you do wish there was a better life out there for him and that he had had more of a chance from the beginning. Awesome book, small yet detailed, captivating and nasty. Very psychological despite the gore and guts which made it one hard to read but one intelligent read at the same time. It has indeed left a bad taste in my mouth. Stokoe did his job, gave me a book that I will never forget and will talk about to all my friends as being the 'sickest book I have ever read to date'. He also gave me a character I really felt for. One I wish I could have saved. Definitely give this a go, if you can stomach it.....

I thought Aron Beauregard’s novels were heavy but this is worse. This book was a thrill from page to page and I feel the writing flow was very satisfying and relatable on an occasional reader level. It was easy enough to follow and I’ve never read anything similar to this. Not bad imo.

I guess when I saw that many people were unable to stomach this book, I took it as a challenge. I finished it, but I'm afraid it will stay burned in my mind for a long time. I'm not a violent person by any means, but I do watch a lot of horror movies with my husband and I've found myself becoming desensitized to a lot of horrific things through the years. I feel like the constant barrage of negative news and terror attacks in the years following 9/11 have added to this desensitization as we collectively become a little numb as a means of self-preservation. Cows was the first thing in a long time that truly repulsed me. I really don't know how to rate it, so I settled on 3. It was very readable in that it was well-written and easily to follow, but even that sounds like a terrible thing to say. It's vulgar, disgusting, offensive, vile. It makes me wonder about the mind of the author and how his wife sleeps next to him at night. It's set a whole new bar for horror/shock entertainment, and not one I'm eager to intentionally match. It's the novel equivalent to A Serbian Film -- simply for the fact that it's not something you can (nor should you) easily talk about with anyone else. It's not a book you describe to someone on the train. It's not a book club book. I had a difficult time discussing it with my husband, and that was the early chapters. I'm a lady, for goodness sakes! It's the most disturbing and depraved thing I've ever read...and it was fascinating.

A DISGUSTING S... FEST, BRUTALITY, ALIENATION THAT IS INSANE. HORROR? YES IN ITS OWN PERVERSE WAY. LOOK, THIS IS NOT THE FIRST DISTURBING BOOK THAT I EVER READ, BUT OTHERS WHILE DISTURBING HAD SOMETHING TO SAY ON A DEEPER LEVEL. THIS ONE TO ME WAS ACTUALLY WELL WRITTEN, HE IS A GOOD WRITER, BUT A DISTURBINGLY GROSS ONE. AND I WONDER IF IT WAS TO JUST BE SO OUT THERE OR WAS IT FOR LITERARY MERIT. EACH READER WILL HAVE TO MAKE UP THEIR OWN MIND. SIMPLY , WITHOUT GETTING INTO THE DETAILS OF THIS BOOK I CANNOT IN GOOD FAITH OR CONSCIOUS RECOMMEND IT, AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING A PRUDE OR OFFENDED EASILY. IT HAD TO DO WITH MORE OF THE IDEA OF DID I GET ANYTHING REDEEMING IN QUALITY OUT OF IT. I D NOT THINK I PERSONALLY LDID. IT WAS JUST A BIG S... FEST AND IF THAT IS WHAT YOU LIKE SO BE IT.