Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

13 reviews

spadedigsbutts's review

dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Incest, Xenophobia, and Classism

ellington_rist's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Rape, Blood, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Incest, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

readingpicnic's review

3.75

I don't really know how I feel about this book...it has to marinate a bit more. I will say that these are some actually morally gray characters in very fucked up ways, which was fun sometimes. I think I got confused about what was happening at some points in the book, and I didn't really understand the ending, so I almost want to reread it... It did keep me guessing the whole book about what was going on, and most of my theories ended up being wrong lol. The lack of consent in this book was upsetting...I'm not sure if it was because the main characters are meant to be fucked up or if it's romanticizing the SA? Pretty fucked though. They are sooo toxic. I don't think I understood either of the main characters' motivations for the entirety of the book whic lended to my confusion. The atmosphere in this book was so incredibly well done: the oiliest, greasiest, grimiest gay book I've ever read. The body horror was also amazing, with disgusting lines like "curdled genitals" on a dead body. Also, why is Johann literally Addie LaRue? Reading this felt like reading a toxic gay anime fanfiction; like, this is what I imagine Noé and Vanitas fanfics are like from the anime The Case Study of Vanitas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Stalking

jems_'s review

3.5

An interesting concept and atmosphere, though the execution felt just a little off.

I do love dark sceneries and myths which I think this book did perfectly. It had a dark and gritty atmosphere, one you wouldn’t want to be in yourself. A glum industrial town would not be the place I‘d like to spend any amount of time in. Such is Elendhaven. 
I also liked the myths in this book and the tad bit of the supernatural making them real. 

The characters however felt a bit inconsequential at some points. With how I imagined them, some of the things they did and said felt somewhat out of character.

I would’ve also liked for the book to be a bit longer to explore the characters, especially the „monster-ization“ a bit longer and maybe over the course of that the author could’ve slowly introduced this behavior that seemed odd to me now and make it more believable.

Also beware of the trigger warnings if you read this!

One other thing: As a German reading this, it was funny because it uses some German terms. I mean „Elend“ alone is German and roughly translates to „misery“ which makes sense for the town. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug use, Incest, and Death of parent

quiethare's review

I was excited to read this because I was expecting an atmospheric and mysterious story but instead it came across as an overly edgy fan fiction written by some teenage girl who thinks a tall guy forcing himself on a “smol bean uwu” is the hottest thing ever. Very much not for me but i’m happy for anyone that did enjoy it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Gore, Incest, and Violence

sofipitch's review

dark medium-paced

1.5

I read this bc apparently this author used to co-wrote fanfic with Tamsyn Muir and I am obsessed with TLT. So I should like this right? And while there were stylistic similarities I feel like I just read a mediocre fanfic for something that doesn't exist. It just felt so underdeveloped, the characters, the plot, the world building. Some stylistic choices I liked and then the characters would talk and it was awful. The most I liked was the gore. I considered DNFing multiple times but it was short so I figured why not. And while I knew what my review would say about half way through, I wanted to give this the benefit of the doubt that it would get better but nope, truly a "that's fucking it?" ending. Go girl, give us nothing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual harassment

reisuki's review

dark tense

3.75

I should read more stuff like this because I always get pleasantly surprised everytime I rediscover I like horror in any type of media. 

It was going somewhere but then it didn't, you know? Lol. It was building up to something and then.. ?? Nothing. It felt rushed in the end. The lack of plot (so they said) didn't bother me too much. So. Tentative rating. 

The longer fall I was looking for? To know that I was summoned up from the dark ether to do a monster’s deeds for Hallandrette’s truest son? And when our work is done, I will carry him to the bottom of the sea, where we both belong. Deep beneath the silt our bones will turn to salt.

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Rape and Sexual harassment

smartie_chan's review

dark slow-paced

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

1.5

1.5 / 5 Stars

CW: Rape of a child, Death, Blood, Gore, Murder, Dub-Con


The fact that this almost won the goodreads choice awards makes me question y'alls taste in books.

Wouldn't even reccomand to my enemies- if I had any

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Blood, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexism

maevemil's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, and Sexual harassment

chris_reads's review

dark funny lighthearted sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I have such mixed feeling on this because I loved the prose and atmosphere and setting, but not so much the plot. As with the characters, they were fascinating and well-crafted but I wasn't exactly rooting for them. This had so many elements I love but they just fell short for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Drug abuse, and Stalking