Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

House of Hollow, by Krystal Sutherland

14 reviews

kalemottison's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I am not one for horror, but 'tis the season, am I right? I picked up House of Hollow on Libby this past week for a little spooky season read, and it did not disappoint! I had fun reading it!

First of all, I enjoyed all of the characters! I found them endearing, and I was desperate to know what happened to the Hollow sisters, where did they go so long ago? Vivi is a little grating at the beginning but I really enjoyed her character in contrast to Grey and Iris by the end of the book. Vivi is also queer, but it's done in a super casual way, which is nice to see every once in a while. Tyler is a highlight, and he adds a great dynamic to Vivi and Iris as they search for their sister. Iris' characterization makes so much sense. She's the youngest of three girls, the older two were rambunctious and rebellious, and in turn, Iris was quiet and well in order. She grapples with her identity vs her sisters, wanting to be like them, but also, trying to find herself. She's not naive like the book almost makes her out to be, since she is not as cool and interesting as her older sisters, but I never found her to be.  She's the smartest one in the book and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this world through her eyes. Her character growth by the end was well worth it. One of the best narrators I've read in a while. 

For the plot, this is where I docked points. I loved that the story was centered around the three girls and their relationship with each other. I have two older sisters, so Iris, I get you. The book does not shy away from the grotesque body horror elements that a story like this needs. I just felt the pacing was off, I don't know how to explain it. I felt like the last half of the book was fantastic, but the beginning is a little slow. I just feel like it takes too long to get where they were going and the plot suffers a bit from that. But overall, everything ties up in the end, (really well, might I add!), and that's really all that matters to me. I did predict one of the mysteries, but for the question of the Hollow girls... I wasn't expecting it, and it was really well done! I applaud the choice! I think this story could have been better if Sutherland upped the age range for this book, and just went all in, no whammies. 

And I cannot end this review without gushing about the imagery! Krystal Sutherland does a fantastic job of putting you right there with Iris as she experiences these horrific events. I was obsessed with each disgusting thing that she describes. I had to gag at some points because it was so realistic. I'll be thinking about the imagery in this book for a while.  The book wraps you up in this nightmare with them, as it swallows you whole. 

Overall, highly recommend this book for the spooky season! I'd avoid it if you can't handle any amount of horror. I can handle some so I think this book is fine if you like to watch the occasionally scary movie with friends but don't watch anything scary by yourself. It's mostly just super creepy, but I know people can be super sensitive to things! This book does not shy away from the creep factor. Be sure to check out the rest of the trigger/content warnings for this book!! 

I look forward to what Krystal Sutherland releases next! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Gore, Self harm, Sexual assault, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Stalking, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Vomit

Moderate: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Bullying, Death, Child death, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

taelights's review against another edition

This book should have been a hit for me because I love horror, thrillers, fantasy, and queer books so much. Those are my top read and loved genres. So between loving a lot of the elements and the high average rating I thought I'd love this book bit I'm so disappointed. It's only a 9 hour audiobook so it should have only taken me two shifts max at work to finish listening to yet it's a week later since I started and I'm only 40% in and the idea of listening to it again is literally exhausting to me. I don't like the writing style, not a single character interests me, the plot isn't holding my attention, and also I think the relationship between the sisters feels weird and almost incestuous despite this book not containing any incest. 

Also the sisters basically having to sexually assult people for their magic to work is not it. 

TW if you have an eating disorder because there are frequent mentions of possible triggers that I'm putting under spoilers if you want specifics:

Spoiler

main characters binge eat food with frequent descriptions of that and mentions about how they don't gain weight and stay skinny despite how much they eat in a day.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Gore, and Sexual assault

ocean's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• 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? N/A

4.5

I love the writing of this book and the story really pulled me in. I couldn’t put it down! Loved the mysterious, gory, floral, decaying vibes. Didn’t love the way the author writes mental health issues. I looked at some of her other work and I didn't like how disability was represented either. It’s safe to say this author prefers to use disability and mental health issues as thematic elements to add to the story, rather than actual representation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicide, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Stalking, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Violence

Minor: Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, and Death

leaf_arrow's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Grief, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical content, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Bullying, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Injury/injury detail, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Addiction, and Abandonment

shelfofunread's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Gore, Death, Eating disorder, Violence, Medical content, and Child death

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

This book has a beautiful cover and an interesting premise, but the way it's written is just. Bad. Everything is over-described but using the same few words (I hope you like the word fetid if you're going to read this), plot points happen over and over (Iris and Vivi break into a place belonging to Grey and find a secret of hers three times!), and the plot is predictable. The characters are flat and uninteresting: the sisters are described in the most boring way possible, breathless at their brittle, skinny, fragile whiteness, and the other major character reads like a parody of a British person. There's this weird sexual undertone to the girls’ powers that I couldn't stand. 

There's also a really stupid scene involving a character shooting a man with a shotgun while he's holding two women and somehow both women are unharmed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Vomit, Body horror, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, and Misogyny

Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Alcohol, Bullying, and Emotional abuse

sassyshark's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Cursing, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Pedophilia

bookishgoob's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.75

This book was incredibly intriguing and i liked a lot of it, however for me some of the descriptions made my skin crawl and made me incredibly nauseated. I enjoyed reading it but i don’t think i could handle reading it again. I think it’s great that the author was able to make me feel physically ill with her descriptions but for me it was too much. i did hope for a different ending but the twist was still good. this is not just a fantasy book like people on book tok say. this is a HORROR book. so beware of that going in. all in all it was a good book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

freya_amber's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Murder, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Child death, Animal death, Violence, Stalking, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Eating disorder

desiderium_incarnate's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Mir hat es wirklich Spaß gemacht, das Buch zu lesen. Da das vermutlich etwas irritierend klingt, wenn man den Inhalt kennt, dazu noch eine Erläuterung:
Alles ging sehr schnell und ich hatte keinen Moment an dem ich mich gelangweilt habe. Die Story ist durch die Perspektivenwahl wie ein großes Geheimnis, was man versucht zu lösen. (Das ist denke ich, der besonders spaßige Teil für mich.)
Alles ist düster und eklig beschrieben, aber einfach so übertrieben dunkel, dass es sich schon nicht mehr realistisch anfühlt. Die Personen verhalten sich sehr glaubwürdig, sind nicht perfekt (offensichtlich) und sprechen auch normal. Zudem finde ich es cool, wie normal Medien hier eingebunden sind. Es ist keine große Sache und absolut glaubwürdig, dass man YouTube-Tutorials nutzt um sich beizubringen wie man Waffen lädt,zum Beispiel.
Nach dem Buch stellt man sich selbst die Frage: Wie weit würdest du für deine Geschwister gehen? 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit