Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly

10 reviews

throwback682's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

Usually if I finish a book and don’t know how I feel about it, scrolling through other people’s reviews helps me process and solidify my feelings. Not this time. I’m still really on the fence. It definitely seems like a love it or hate it book but somehow I just don’t feel either. I didn’t find it horribly predictable nor breathtakingly shocking. Some twists I guessed, some I didn’t. It did have some of my least favorite horror tropes -

bad guy with a facial difference,

mentally ill murderer,

random sexual assault thrown in.

But it kept me very interested, that’s for sure. I don’t know. Very mixed feelings. Sometimes I thought it was going to be a five star, but then… it wasn’t. I liked the epilogue better than the final chapter. Should you read it? Solid maybe. Shrug. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

Casual usage of a slur for Romani people, as a synonym for “shortchanged”

stephanieluxton's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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

4.0

This book started out super strong and was able to carry on that momentum basically all the way through. The characters were interesting, the mystery unfolded at a pace slow enough to create atmosphere, mystery, and spooks - but fast enough to not be boring.

There was a couple points in the story where the plot took a twist and I thought to myself - "I hope xyz happens", and then it played out exactly how I was hoping.

This book is essentially about a young woman trying to solve the murder of her family. Dixie was the lone survivor of a horrific axe murder - her father slaughtered her mother and 3 brothers in their kitchen one morning then cut his own throat, leaving his only baby daughter as the lone survivor. Now an adult, Dixie moves back into her childhood home, hoping to feel a connection with the family she never knew.

Overall, this was a really good book. It was so close to being a 5 star read. There were just a few things that bothered me enough to lower the star rating. I don't totally hate that you could probably guess a large part of the ending fairly early on. - in fact, it's great when authors sprinkle clue in.

The part that I hated was

that Rory actually knew the whole story and just never told anyone. There's literally no reason for that. It makes no sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

killmoore_'s review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad tense medium-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

4.0

Despite predicting the ending very early on, I thoroughly enjoyed Theme Music. It's a wild ride from start to finish. Check your trigger warnings, it gets gruesome.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

noraestelle's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

I think overall it’s a really good book and I would be open to reading other things from this author. I will say it wasn’t perfect, I feel like it could have been cut in half. I don’t think this is a spoiler, but you’re following an unreliable narrator that you find out something is off very early on so by the end of the book you’re kind of just feeling like “can someone please just tell me what’s going on?”. While the climax is good, you’ve already been through like 4 other instances that you thought was the climax. I just felt like it was kind of just repetitive and at one point it literally was a whole scene that was repeated. 
Like I said it was a really good book, I just want others going into it to know so it’s a better experience for them. Also, I highly suggest getting the audiobook. The voice actress did a phenomenal job! I really felt immersed because of her. 
Now this might be a

so watch out, but the ending while sweet I don’t know how I felt about the paranormal aspect of it. I’m conflicted on that. Kind of cheesy but 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

maraycher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Alcohol

gumbo's review against another edition

4.0

main character suffers from being annoying disease sometimes (in terms of when she is herself, not relating to the story) but the author makes up for it with how brilliantly written all the spooky stuff is written. however,

i found it to be glaringly obvious from nearly the get-go that is was ford. no idea if the level of obviousness was intentional or not

, but i still really enjoyed the experience. i couldn't put the book down for the last third of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

musings_marginalia_miscellanea's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

barefootbetsy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

lilifane's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm very, very picky when it comes to Horror books. 
I like it when the Horror is a little bit more subtle, when the focus is on a character study, when your imagination scares you more than what's actually on page, when you don't know if the explanation is supernatural or not. And I think this book does this beautifully for the most part. 

So, 25 years ago, a man murdered his whole family and only the 18 months old daughter survived. She was raised by her aunt and in the present she is in a serious relationship and in search for a house to move into with her boyfriend. That's when she discovers her old family home is up for sale. So she moves in to reconnect to the part of her life, she can't really remember, but that's haunted her all her life. From then on, spooky things start to happen, while she also discovers that what she knew about the tragedy of the past, might not be the whole story. 

I loved Dixie's narrative voice. She's not always the most likable character, in fact she makes some questionable decisions. But I still couldn't help but root for her. The humor is amazing. The choice of words, the word plays, I loved it. At the same time, the spooky scenes are actually spooky. I think the author does a great job of creating the mysterious and creepy atmosphere of a haunted murder house without making it too over the top. And the way Dixie describes her fears is SO relatable. I've never read from a point of view that described so well how I feel when I'm alone after watching/reading something spooky. Intrusive thoughts that one is not alone, while at the same time making fun of oneself for having these thoughts. I loved this!
There are some scenes that have a little too much violence, blood and gore for my usual taste, but somehow those worked really well for me here. I also like that there is a mystery aspect to the story, even if it's pretty obvious. I still think it's crafted well and you kind of start to question everything the more unhinged the protagonist gets, to be honest. 

Towards the end there were a little too many things happening all at once, so you couldn't really appreciate most of them, especially some of the more emotional revelations that were just glossed over. And I didn't like the showdown, I think it was too long. I liked the ending, though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

powerpuffgoat's review

dark emotional mysterious

2.5

The easiest way for me to sum up this book is "not good enough". That's not to say there were no good aspects, but there weren't enough.

The premise of the book is captivating, and it doesn't pull any punches from the very beginning... or so I hoped. After the gripping first chapter, it slows right down and turns into mush.

The main character, Dixie, is an unreliable narrator, but in the worst way. There is no subtlety to it, it's all very ham-fisted, and it just doesn't work. Additionally, she is impulsive and does many things with no rhyme or reason. Her sense of self-preservation is basically absent in favour of processing the strange plot. 

Other characters aren't much better. Dixie's partner, initially acting like any reasonable adult would in his situation, does a 180 and just enables her behaviour. The villain's motivation is such a stretch, I think I pulled a muscle just reading it. Also, I cannot stand "bad guy monologues". Truly, how does this trope still make an appearance?

Finally, the plot and pace of this book are all over the place. The twists either come completely out of nowhere, or you can see them from a mile away. Again, zero subtlety. Zero finnesse. The entire book is just clunky, and reading it was more hard work than I am willing to do for entertainment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Stalking

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence