Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe

7 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The first act of this book was perfect. I was scared, intrigued, paranoid, sad, and excited to read more.

Then things just got ridiculous. I don't quite understand "the rules" for the paranormal in this book. The info dumping got pretty ridiculous. Characters made questionable choices.

It got really dark. And that's not a bad thing, necessarily. But the author made one thing happen that really pushed me over the edge and made me super uncomfortable (which I'll include in the content warnings). It isn't a splatterpunk book so while some gruesome shit goes down, it's not all in excruciating detail.

The end wasn't satisfying or particularly scary either. It just made me feel worse than I did before I read it. If you want me to ruin the ending for you, I'll tell you what happens in the content warning section.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Torture, Incest, Sexual content, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual violence

Obviously Naomi dies but we don't see it. We know her body is mutilated and it's sad. The thing that bothered my most was at the end when our main character gets basically possessed, slaughters his young niece, chains up his wife and sister and rapes them both for awhile before killing them too. It's all pretty icky but the incest was a huge NO from me. It just made everything worse. If you want to know more spoilers, the house was already haunted by a man who was a deranged doctor. He tortured and murdered his wife and two daughters in a secret room in the attic. They all haunt the house in present day. He possesses another guy to kill Naomi first before possessing the dad after awhile. The story ends with the dad moving out of the house and a new doctor moving in with his family, who will inevitably repeat the cycle again. Sad stuff. Not fun.

ebonysbookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

This was such a fun, quick little read and I thoroughly needed something like this to get out of my reading slump (and to work with my crazy schedule!). I finished this within a day - it was very atmospheric and creepy. ⁣
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The language is very flowery at times, and extremely heightened - but this does add to the charm and makes it feel like a proper old ghost tale. ⁣
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I think the first half really hooked me. I couldn’t put it down, however as the conclusion drew nearer I did start to feel slightly disappointed. Not sure why completely, even upon reflection and taking my time to gather thoughts. I just loved that the first half was a true haunting and was super eery, and though it definitely remained ghost orientated it started to feel a little too forced maybe? I didn’t care for the build up and Charles’ arc - some 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 he did toward to the end really just felt gratuitous almost and there for the shock value instead of aiding the story. It swayed a little too into something more paranormal/possession-like than I would’ve preferred. ⁣
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Naomi’s Room has definitely highlighted that I just want to read a proper good haunting ghost story. Looking forward to finding one - any suggestions welcome! ⁣
⁣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Incest and Rape

kermit_the_wrong's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

book equivalent of edging without a satisfying payoff 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Medical content, Torture, Pregnancy, Drug use, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Grief, Child death, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Rape, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Incest, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide

mistimacabre's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child abuse, Torture, Child death, and Murder

skiz's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

ggcd1981's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.75

Naomi's room foi indicado por duas Booktubers que sigo (Harpies in the trees e The Bookubus). Segundo elas esse é um desenvolvimento diferente para a trope da casa Assombrada. Isso me intrigou bastante e o priorizei. Devo dizer que o livro não me surpreendeu tanto quanto esperava (tive a impressão de que haveria um plot twist inesperado). Mas essa não era a proposta do livro. Na verdade, o que a história faz é gradualmente levar o leitor a testemunhar acontecimentos não comuns em outras histórias de "Casa assombrada". Antes mesmo do filme The Grudge este livro introduz o conceito de que uma vez que se entra na casa assombrada, o mal que reside na casa acompanha e passa a assombrar os indivíduos. Pelo desenrolar gradual, já pelo meio do livro, consegui vislumbrar que o narrador estava sendo corrompido e provavelmente iria, ao final, cometer algum ato horrível. Contudo o livro surpreende na intensidade dos atos realizados e contra quem estes são realizados. Mesmo tendo consciência da corrupção do narrador, próximo ao final ainda me perguntava o que aconteceria e como a história iria se desenrolar. 

Dois pontos positivos fortes são: A. O clima tenso permanece por todo o livro. O clima pesado e de tragédia iminente começa nos primeiros capítulos com o desaparecimento de Naomi e essa atmosfera é mantida até a última frase do livro. O livro é bastante atmosférico, o que me agrada bastante; B. A história fala de perda e luto. Essa temática é muito próxima de mim. É algo que me afeta muito e em alguns momentos a sensação de perda e luto dos personagens me fez identificar com o pesar deles. Isso com certeza deu um destaque ao livro, pelo menos para mim. 

Um lado negativo do livro, que diz respeito mais a gosto pessoal meu do que a qualidade do livro em si, foi que determinadas situações da história pediam maior descrição em minha opinião. Ou seja, em determinadas cenas acredito que o autor poderia ter sido mais explicito nas descrições, sido mais gráfico no relato das violências sofridas pelas vítimas. 

Em geral Naomi's room me deixou bastante confusa quanto a sua nota. O livro não me surpreendeu, por outro lado a atmosfera de terror e perturbação foi mantida do começo ao fim. Acredito, no entanto, que um livro de terror não deve ser julgado apenas por sua capacidade em surpreender, pois manter a atmosfera de medo é mais importante. Dou nota 4.75 estrelas. 

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Sexual Assault, Rape, Incest, Child torture, Child death 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Child abuse, Grief, Violence, Confinement, Incest, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Gore, Medical trauma, and Medical content

renie's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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

2.5

Initially, this book had great atmosphere but then soon made me really uncomfortable (with the content; not scare level). Towards the end, I just found it misogynistic and ultimately sickening. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, and Violence