The word is out that Cows is every bit as dark and deranged as Iain Banks' classic The Wasp Factory. It's not: it's even more so. Possibly the most visceral novel ever written."

Steven doesn't know it, but he can't fulfill his dreams of a normal life. He’ll meet a cow that will change his life. he won’t have a normal life, but he’ll be free to be who he, truly is. After reading what I have just written, you are probably wondering, what is so intense about this story. I won't tell you, because I think you have to read this book, knowing as little as possible. Stokoe : Okay, okay – look – in Cows, cows are completely symbolic. I mean look, I have them talking – in Cows, cows can talk! Which as you know, in real life, they can’t. Interspersed throughout the book are snippets of facts about the history of the cow. I can only imagine that they were introduced at the suggestion of an editor to add some semblance of heft and depth to the proceedings, although they read very much like excerpts from the paper of a bright but lazy undergraduate who's decided to skim Wikipedia and do a bit of paraphrasing. They were irritating enough to tip me over from a two-star rating to a one-star rating. Connell is keen to present himself as someone who's thought deeply about Irish history and myth—the Famine and Cromwell are mentioned more than once; parallels are drawn between the Irish experiences of colonialism and those of Native Americans and Indigenous Australians. Stella is a bit of a mess. She's still dealing with the loss of her identical twin sister and her mother to cancer while also struggling to accept that she has the BRCA gene meaning she has an 85% chance of getting the cancer that killed her family. She's desperate to have a baby and through her loss, comes up with a crazy plan to get one. With this book, the full impact of the damage caused by social media is very evident and I have full respect for Dawn O’ Porter in portraying it in all it’s horror.Also, you know, kudos to the creativity put into some of the gore in this stuff. The author must really have dug deep into the darkest recesses of his mind to put some of this shit to paper. And to do it while at all times advancing a thrilling story at a good clip - chapeau. There is a quote from Tara that I think sums up where all these women and many more in today’s society are at: His simple, spare style ("A respect has come between us that was never there before. It is a small and delicate thing, still fragile") occasionally tips over, repetition creating strain rather than strength ("It was a moment from history. And a moment of history"). At times, the language made me curious as to who The Cow Book's intended audience really is. Lines such as "'Oíche mhaith, Ma,' I say, which is the old language for 'goodnight'" strike an uncomfortably discordant note coming from a well-travelled Irishman who is not yet 30. Unfortunately, I didn't see it. Perhaps I should have gone into it more blind. But I don't think it would have made any difference. First of all, I could not pinpoint any messages or themes in this novel that said anything that hadn't been said by 1997 less crudely and graphically but with more emotional impact. I felt like I was treading in familiar territory. Perhaps that is because I also have been a lifelong listener of some of the darker subgenres of industrial music, such as power electronics, which highlights sensory experiences otherwise abrasive and repellent and uses them in a way that somehow captures a bleak psychological concept or story, while also managing to capture the beauty behind the noise. Why would a woman, however drunk, think it’s okay to pleasure herself on a train and when caught beg for understanding? We live in the age of “Me Too” something that women, feminists, call them what you will, have fought so hard for. It’s taken courage, lots and lots of courage for these women to stand up and say, “I’m not going to let a man take advantage of me.” But if we as women then perform something that is illegal, then surely we’ve got to give the same respect to men? How can this woman be portrayed as just pleasuring herself when a man caught doing a similar thing, would be branded as a pervert?

Reading the blurb for this novel, the first novel for adults by author Dawn O'Porter, I got very excited. It talks about the cow being a piece of meat, born to breed, one of the herd, and compares this to women, saying how they don't have to fall into a stereotype. I expected a slightly subversive novel about feminism. What I found was an easy to read, enjoyable romp through three modern women's lives.

The closest thing I’ve read to this would be Danger Slater’s ‘I Will Rot Without You.’ I’ve heard others mention Duncan Ralston’s ‘Woom,’ hell, even Duncan has said he’s not read the book but people say it’s similar to ‘Woom,’ but I didn’t fully make that connection. Maybe because ‘COWS’ read as more of a Bizarro book and ‘Woom’ reads as a horror story centering on a man’s lingering trauma. Christine (a bespectacled cow with a chic French look) : You know, I hate to say this, but he’s not entirely wrong. It’s pretty simplistic to see this guy’s novel either as a cry of protest against modern urban debovinisation or on the other hand as an Eating Animals Safran Foer- style polemic. In fact, it’s neither. Lulubelle (a decisive cow): Okay, let’s take a vote. Everyone, moo if you want to trample Matthew Stokoe!

Forget Bret Easton Ellis, Poppy Z Brite, and Dennis Cooper. That's kids stuff. If you want something truly repellent, try this." Stella is the most dysfunctional, obsessed and awful human being possible. Her behaviour would be enough to send any man running for the hills. This is the story of a 29 year old Longford man who returned home to help out on his family farm after living and working abroad. This is a moving, introspective book of loss and rebirth; of globetrotting and family farming; of feeling lost and feeling a sense of belonging; of humanity and animals; of history and art; of death and new life; of centuries-old bonds and traditions, of love and caring, and also of the horrors man has caused in the world. I didn't expect to find all these things, but that's the beauty of books: you start reading a book about an Irish farmer, and before you know it, you're getting an unforgettable art lesson.Feminism? What it means to me is years of being part of an organisation called Business and Professional Women. It was founded years ago and the main aim was to ensure that women coming into the workplace were given equal rights, equal pay and respect and dignity. Unfortunately, it seems that the modern feminist thinks differently. This book using Cam’s voice through her blogs just actually made me want to weep because it makes women just look nasty.