Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

26 reviews

andrewb21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.0

Really difficult to put down, a whirlwind of smart horror, with homages to the classics of the genre. Perfect for any fans of horror if you can embrace and be okay with the occasional “wait, I don’t think I know what time of day it is or how this character got here” that will go through your mind. A wild ride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

aggbutterfly's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

3.25

This was ok. I liked seeing Jade be delulu about how she is living out a slasher. I feel like I didn't know enough about slashers to understand all of Jade's references and it sorta took me out of the story. It also took me a while to differentiate the names of the town members and founders. I think I was also confused sometimes on how X would lead to Y. I was interested in how the ending would be revealed

I was anticipating the supernatural element throughout the novel

and the ending was also pretty gory with some of the descriptions.
"Growing up, staring out over the water, what she'd always imagined was some monster fish spurting up through the glistening surface, snatching a bird or three, then splashing back down. Anything to break the boredom"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child abuse and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape

fkshg8465's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Such a sad story packaged in a terrible tale! I was excited to read this trilogy, but I'm reconsidering. I heard the third book is really good, which means I'll now need to read the second first. Better be worth it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ghostinyourcellar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

janetpants's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

smokeyphynix's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

gamerreaper13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.75

This book was hard to get through. Not because it was profound or gruesome or enlightening, it was just so damn BORING.

Jade was annoying and uninteresting. The constant call backs to slasher films was cute at first but quickly became repetitive and irritating. I signed up for a slasher book and only got the slashing in the final 100 pages of the book. 

The twist at the end was good and the gore (when it happened) was amazingly written, it was just having to crawl and claw through the first 350 pages to get there. I found myself skimming pages waaaay too often throughout this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Incest, Rape, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Abortion

jully_bean's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

The book started out a little bit slow in the early parts while introducing the characters and setting the scene. But once things started getting more tense, it was hard to put down! Such a unique story!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest and Sexual assault

tesshersh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I’m not sure if I extra enjoyed this book because I’ve read so many BAD books lately, or if it really IS that good, so take this with a grain of salt. But WOW. One of my only gripes is that it touches on some themes that I’m not 100% sure I love being talked abt from a teenage girl’s perspective written by a male author, but I think it was respectfully done. 
Spoiler for my other complaint:

I wish that the conclusion/reveal of the killer DIDN’T have a supernatural element. I think the author’s point of regarding real life not being like a horror/slasher movie, about things like gentrification & colonization being a type of horror and violence of their own, was backtracked a bit by letting jade’s theory of a supernatural element be true at the end.

Also: cannot recommend the audio book enough, cara gee was amazing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

HUGE trigger warnings - not just in the gore/violence you would associate with a thriller but for other content as well, please check content warnings before reading

hintermost's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

1.0

Fucking hell, this book has so many issues. Jade Daniels is far and away one of the most annoying protagonists I have ever bore witness to. So much so, that by the time her trauma gets revealed by the end of the book, you can barely sympathize with her, you just want the book to be over with already. If I have to read the phrase "final girl" or get another "well I'm an outcast!11!!" one more time, I'd be liable to pull my own hair out.

The book setup itself is an overly-bloated mess, getting quite exhausting to read in the middle chapters. This issue is exasperated further by the usage of the "Slasher 101" sections between chapters. I know this is meant to further allow the reader access to Jade's horror knowledge and her relationship with Mr. Holmes, but it's just grating - especially when most of it is irrelevant to the plot.

As a result of the bloated, poorly planned plot, the actual horror doesn't occur until the tail end of the novel. When it finally happens, it seems like less of a well-planned ending point, and more "cobbled-together-to-meet-a-deadline."

I have no intention of reading the sequels, as this first novel was an annoying, unfocused, bloated mess of a work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment