ladyeowyns'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
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Excrement, Incest, Child abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Torture, Rape, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Bullying, Death of parent, Alcohol, Confinement, Cursing, Death, and Emotional abuse
sunnys_library's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Before I start, here is a small disclaimer. This can be an extremely triggering book. Please make sure to read the trigger warnings, do some research if you need to. I don't know if I would rrally recommend this book. You should not read this book, it WILL affect you. Please proceed with caution.
I also want to mention that my review and critique is only based on the story written in the book (the literary aspect). I am not trying to be insensitive to the facts, realities, history behind the story. I will be talking about the ficticious characters are narrative.
🖤 vibes/theme: very dark, raw, painful, cruelty, helplessness, torture, psychological horror
🖤 The girl next door is held captive in the basement... will David stop it? Will he help? How far are they going to go....
🖤 brief thoughts: This book was... absolutely hard to read. I came in knowing that this book was going to be "disturbing". It was horrifying. I cannot say that I 'liked' the book. It was definitely well written but the contents of it just makes it impossible to like. The book was well written. It is a definite page turner and what you will find here is that the author doesn't turn away from all the horrors happening, he goes into detail and make your worst imaginable outcomes happen and top them. Whatever I had imagined that would happen happened in a worse way.
I think the book explored a lot of different themes too. Cruelty being an obvious one but also powerlessness (specially children feeling powerless). There were some themes that were brushed on slightly but the author didn't go in depth ( such as mental illness, trauma and so on).
The characters were quite flat and lacked depth (reasoning for their actions) but that fact didn't bother me because I don't think it took away from the point of this book.
This book is cruel, painful, and hard to read.
⚠️ content warnings: too many to list please if you think abuse, rape and torture will be very triggering to you look up the content warnings and avoid this book
❓️ Have you read it? What did you think?
#bookstagram #books #bookreview #bookish #bookworm #bookcommunity #readersofinstagram #reading #readingchallenge
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Self harm, Torture, and Violence
meaghanelizabook'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Torture, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Car accident, Self harm, and Excrement
silver_lining125'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? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Torture and Child abuse
Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Pedophilia, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Excrement and Death of parent
morganmay's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Incest, Medical content, Mental illness, Blood, Bullying, and Death of parent
lookingformysax'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
4.75
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Torture, and Violence