Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

79 reviews

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I'm nowhere near smart enough to fully comprehend what I just read. I enjoyed this experience, but I'll never touch this again. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

galaxy_cat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I was planning on writing a whole essay about all the messages, about the confusion and dread this piece of work causes to anyone who is capable of actually finishing it. About its ability to infiltrate your brain and leave a permanent mark, just like JT describes in the introduction.

But then I realised that maybe it's just a house of leaves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, and Abandonment

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and War

comradestylin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

One of the best scary books I've ever read. Tactile in a way I've never seen done before, this book feels bigger on the inside. A dense, multi-perspective thrilling story that never feels predictable. It transcends most conventional labels. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

bokslukaren's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

3.0

You know what they say; one man's unpublished essay is another's hookup journal and spiral into insanity! 

Get your notepad (physical or digital) ready, and while you're at it you might as well grab a mirror, because this book requires you to twist and turn with careful and thorough attentiveness to have a chance at being deciphered and comprehended! House of Leaves is an analytical and detailed essay (including footnotes) about a documentary, as well as reactions to said essay. With foreshadowing, insanity, mental illness and riddles hounding every corner of every page and swirling around in the reader's head, notes offer a necessary stability. This book is intensely unsettling and somehow still managed to keep my attention despite the 700 hundred page essay-style confusion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Mental illness, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

thesuperawesomesarah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Medical content, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

lianadmtr's review against another edition

4.75

not 5 stars only because of the insistent, almost relishing use of sexual trauma as a plot device

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

fl0ralaura's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.75

This book, in form alone, is wildly inventive and imaginative. When I heard it took the author 10 years to write, I believed it instantly because this is so much detail and so many hidden clues and puzzles between these pages. I love “weird books”, books that play with form, and books that riff off the familiar. I was shocked by how touching I would find aspects of the story especially Karen.

That being said, this book is disturbing and creepy. The first half in particular caused related nightmares of unheimlich architecture. The Minotaur story, especially as it relates to themes of fatherhood and shame were particularly moving. 

My one real critique is that in parts of the second half it drags a bit and I, at times, found Truant’s purple prose boring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

paronomaniac's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death and Alcohol

keiraonyxraven's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

pennergy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gun violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Suicide