Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Devil House: A Novel by John Darnielle

30 reviews

heebymeg's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.0

I think this book will not be good if you go into it with preconceived ideas of what it is about and what should happen in it. It’s not a horror novel, true crime, or murder mystery. It’s a commentary and you have to be paying attention to that string of thought throughout the whole thing, without getting distracted or tempted by the other trails. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child abuse

br00k3a133n's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Oh gosh. So I loved the format of this and the twists and turns it took, especially in the end....but the sections with the "olde English" writing was hard for me. On one hand to parse and on the other to physically read. The whole section (that as far as I can tell was an insert to contextualize some of the themes) "Song of Gorbonian", was printed in a near incomprehensible font. I basically ended up having to just skip it and hope for the best.

I want to love this more, but the detrators really were too strong.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Murder

kitaface's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Honestly just left me really confused. There were parts I liked quite a bit and parts a had to push myself through. Overall I don't know what it all added up to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcoholism and Forced institutionalization

loveallthis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Mass/school shootings and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

ashcrash's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

maybe it’s just because i’ve been up darnielle’s ass since i was like 13, but i Loved this book. it’s a lil opaque and confusing and the sentences run on forever, sure, but i feel like u get a really good look into chandler’s brain and how jumbled everything gets as the plot progresses. there were definitely parts where i thought maybe i wasn’t smart enough to be getting the message or just that the message was convoluted, but i think it works itself out by the end and leaves lots of room for thought. i really ended up caring about the characters too and loved the white witch passages especially. second person isn’t normally my bag but it worked super well here. i think darnielle’s writing style either works for you or doesn’t, but it really worked for me.

tagging this as a spoiler just in case but my main complaint is that i spent most of the stylized Song of Gorbonian chapter trying to figure out the font. i like the idea of it, but it was really hard to read that script. as far as the ending goes, i think it was about how he can’t tell the real true story anyway, because as jana’s letter showed he can only show one side of the coin, so he gave us the archetypes true crime types want instead. it was so easy to fall into derrick, seth, alex, and angela because they’re exactly the kind of characters we want and are supposed to root for, in a sort of doomed way.

 

soooooo many thoughts about story and true crime and archetypes and the meanings we make from all of them. definitely not the horror i was expecting from the cover but so so good nonetheless, will definitely be eating my brain for the foreseeable future

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse

mzynda's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

zw_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

cviii's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

dustghosts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

 Overall, a very ambitious undertaking both in terms of craft and content. Darnielle poses and ruminates on questions that criticize the true crime genre— cutting but careful, well-balanced but appropriately weighty for what we’re actually talking about. Who owns a story? How does community tragedy transform itself into urban myth?   Who gets to decide what version of the truth to tell, and are there times when it’s better untold? Questions and answers are posed not only towards true crime, but also towards restorative justice on a broader scale, and in the end this book is frustratingly compassionate towards many different actors in the many different stories herein.

As many reviewers have said, this is not a horror book and marketing it as such is a misstep! What it is, though, is a pretty impressive work of craft that digs its heels in as Darnielle plays with timelines, and interlocking stories, and points of view, and— and, and. Absolutely, some of these experiments are less successful than others, but thinking about the story as a work in fragments thrown into a cardboard box… Form and function are pretty beautifully combined here. 

My primary critique is that there were sections in the middle that really did feel like they dragged, and the pacing was a bit meandering at times. In the end, it felt juuust a little too long, and I could see why others had trouble finishing. Still, really worth the engagement if you are a critic or an enjoyer of true crime, and maybe especially if you’re a nonfiction reader looking to sink your teeth into some fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

geraeusch's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Murder