rumireads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Pedophilia, Rape, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Suicide, Miscarriage, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, Excrement, Gaslighting, Incest, Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, and Body horror
readwithbells's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I don’t have a lot of words here. Idk who I would recommend this to, I don’t know who else might find this book. I love it. But I am deeply horrified. Rice is the Queen of horror after all. I feel trapped in this world. Ugh.
The reason this doesn’t get 5 stars (even though it probably deserves it) is I had just gotten invested in Michael and Rowan, and then commence 500 pages of the Mayfair family history. I liked the history, I really did, I liked the patterns and the stakes and the story wouldn’t be nearly as eerie and unsettling without it. But Jesus Christ there was so much of it. I can’t get mad at Rice for worldbuilding but omg girl that was a LOT of worldbuilding.
This is all a very dramatic way of saying this book is very good, well-written, horrifying in its horror, so overwhelmingly successful in getting me to care about these characters and hate hate HATE Lasher. Absolutely superb.
Graphic: Miscarriage, Rape, Incest, and Sexual violence
fra_ci90's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia