Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

9 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Horror was a genre I’d started away from for a very long time, but a couple years ago, I challenged myself to read books I’d normally avoid. So fantasy and horror were now officially on the list of books. I find I’m still picky about fantasy, but I’m a fan of well written horror now, and this one feels very well organized and plotted.

The story was, admittedly, a little hard to get into at first. I reread the first chapter several times, but once I got past it, I was hooked. I also had to wonder if it was a satire about MAGA, but the author’s note at the end said nothing about it, so I’ll try to skip assumptions. But if you’ve read it, you may see some parallels there as I did.

I really liked what my friend would refer to as the unlikely friendships that were written. It was they who saved the works, after all! I liked the epilogue and the seed of doubt planted (yes, I meant that internally and unironically). And in between, I liked that a range of LGBTQ relationships were normalized while still acknowledging transphobia just a bit, although I was sorry that sex shaming was still ever present (pretty sure that’s a leftover disease of Puritan influence, and that was appropriate too, given the discussion of settlers, John’s commitment to the Quakers, and the purity of faith our heroes had in the value of humanity).

I will be seeking out more of this writer’s works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

whatzoreads's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Set in small town America, Black River Orchard, is a legacy gone rotten story, as twisted and gnarly as the ancient apple trees that transform the townsfolk with their dark magic. 

Chuck Wendig uses the sinister slow burn playbook to perfection in this terrifying tale about a parasitic Apple cult. 

With a beautifully layered ensemble cast that decomposes before your very eyes, at its rancid core is the creepiest and perhaps most insidious of monsters.

Black River Orchard is like the Ruby Slipper Apple it produces… it quickly becomes your home, your everything, you find yourself slipping between the dust jacket with a sense of relief and contentment. Just one more bite… 

… and at 640 pages it’s a horror masterpiece. I rated this five stars, and it’s fair to say I will never eat another apple again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Gaslighting

atamano's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Classism

ladykatka's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Every child eventually learns that their parent isn't perfect, but this book taught Calla one hell of a lesson.

I love a good Faustian bargain and I'm pretty sure this one counts. I haven't read a 600 page book and I really long time and I read this one in 3 days so clearly I enjoyed it. However, it turned from creepy and atmospheric for 75% of the book to instant body horror in the last 25%. So that took me by surprise. I also had to rate this down half a star because Emily was annoying and I didn't like that

John had the perfect death and then they brought him back just so that there could be a happy ending for the main characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

voilajean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Transphobia

uncreativeoops's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Nearly DNFed but then just skimmed the middle part because the plot was actually interesting. The characters just annoyed me. In theory, they sounded intriguing but in execution they were too one-dimensional, like each had one characteristic that described them (the author even does that at the end) and that's all they think about. It got better when they interacted with each other and not just the side characters of their backstories but that happened pretty late. This book is slow and I actually would have enjoyed that if I had connected with the characters more.
Ironically, I now want to go to a farmer's market and try new heirloom apples. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicide, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

imstephtacular's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

beaniebabyidiot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Vomit

literarybitch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense

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

The old-fashioned looking font on the cover does this book a disservice because it really is a fully 2023 novel (down to examples not of how teens text each other, but how an adult thinks teens still text each other but that's besides the point).
If you follow this author on social media, you might know that he is obsessed with apples. This guy knows so much about rare heirloom (rareloom?) apple varietals and he's very passionate about them, so when I heard that he was working on a book centered on that knowledge, I got hyped about this months-to-years in advance. Not to project onto the author, but I think he was hyped too. This is written with a vaguely anticipatory air, like this book is supposed to be his... masterpiece? Passion project? Love letter to his special interest?
For that reason, I wanted to enjoy this more. I wanted to suck it down greedily in a weekend, or else savor it bite by bite, but in reality it just took me a really long time to struggle through it. It's... challenging to read. Don't get me wrong, I loved all the apple lore! It was just hard for me to get into, and it's for sure not the book's fault. There were spooky vibes, a spooky guy with a spooky smile, class traitorship, an emotionally abusive lesbian marriage, and, best of all, a sex-positive portrayal of ethical nonmonogamy & kink! I appreciate all of that. I just felt removed from it for reasons I can't pin down. Maybe I need to take a break from books. 

Something I like but will likely be divisive about the writing is the inclusion of written intrusive thoughts. Italic text will interrupt a paragraph which will then continue, substituting the intended rest of the sentence in place of the harsher but truer italicized text. To take my own words for example, my earlier sentence might have been written like this: 

This is written with a vaguely anticipatory air, like this book is supposed to be his
masterpiece
passion project.

 It reads like distressed jeans. Distressed writing. Though I do like it, I think it was 1) very overused in this book, and 2) used indiscriminately among characters. In my opinion, it would be more effective to use this more exclusively in the point of view of characters that are more likely to have intrusive thoughts. Although everyone has them, not everyone has them equally, after all.
 
Overall, I don't think I can give this a fair number. I fear a score based on my net-enjoyment of the reading experience will undervalue the things it has going for it, and there's really nothing wrong with it either. But it would also be disingenuous to overrate a book just because I think I should have liked it more.
 
?/10
#WhatsKenyaReading
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

sex-positive kink mention & ethical nonmonogamy