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alexisgarcia's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment
Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Blood, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Alcohol
bookburdy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
durrareadsstuff's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
‼️ POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD‼️
The ending was good and I definitely didn't see it coming, but it was honestly quite a shame. I appreciate the genius of it, the repetition and how the pronouns kept changing in the end—that was really good. I was just sort of disappointed? It's like all that earlier part was for nothing, you know? I think I'm just sick of reading horror books that keep turning out like this.
Graphic: Self harm and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content
chloevienna's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content and Death of parent
kevin_brane's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Minor: Sexual content
kstericker's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Minor: Sexual content and Death of parent
lunar_lapis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
-Spoiler Territory-
After reading a little more, I like how the main character witnesses things around them. I still don't know the main characters name or gender. Jake, the boyfriend, has a white film layer above his lip every morning, he eats cereal and reads any time he can. They arrive at Jake's family's farm. There are dead lambs, pigs with maggots eating them alive, and hens eating their own eggs. Are they neglecting the animals? There's a hole in the ground where the basement is, I first wondered will this turn out to be some sort of animal graveyard or torture area?
We meet jakes parents, they're both seemingly strange. They eat dinner and play an impersonation game where Jake mimics the main characters voice and sounds exactly like it. At this point I thought could Jake be the caller? he's good at mimicking voices. The main character looks around the house and sees photos which look just like her as a kid, even though Jake says it's him. They see jakes bedroom with lots of bookshelves and a worn out blue chair. In the basement there are shelves with papers, all drawings or sketches or paintings, and a painters easel in front of a furnace.
They start to drive home and it begins to snow heavily, turning into a storm. They stop at a DairyQueen and the girls behind the tills start laughing at the couple. (Perhaps because it was one man doing two voices talking to himself?) Then Jake stops by an old school. They start to make out and about to have sex in the car when Jake see's someone looking at them from the school building. He gets angry and storms inside to confront him. The main character follows him and the story changes to sort of a horror atmosphere with dark hallways and seemingly a predatory stalker and a missing boyfriend.
The story ends by revealing that Jake, the caller, and the main character are all the same person. Jakes parents died long ago, and Jake was a caretaker for the school building despite being incredibly smart, his social skills prevented him from working in a better job.
Throughout the story, the main character mentions "thinking of ending things", referring to ending their relationship with Jake despite being attracted to him. When I started this story I thought it meant ending their life. Which actually turned out to be correct as the main character(s) kill themselves in a closet at the school building.
The caller storyline gets concluded, revealing that one day Jake left his house and went to a pub. He met a girl and thought about giving her his phone number but couldn't manage it, and regretted it. He couldn't bare not knowing how things would have ended if he had given her his number. So from how I've understood it, Jake created a separate personality for this girl in his own being. He'd call his *own* number, thinking he was calling the girl from the bar. Then the 'girl' personality would look at the phone and be confused how her own phone number had called her in the middle of the night, and we go through this story through this girl personality's point of view.
It was a very confusing experience but I enjoyed it. The book recommends re-reading it from end to start, but I'm personally not going to. If you enjoyed Fight Club, you'd likely enjoy this book too.
Graphic: Mental illness, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Animal death and Sexual content
mermaidsherbet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
alexandriasreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail