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raichoreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Rapid fire content complaints: The strange religious turn this book makes is bizarre and out of place. The female characters in this book spend much too much of their time being victimized by men or feeling pre-occupied by their relationships (whereas the men in this story do not). There are way too many side characters who are never mentioned again who speak in “broken English” and who the white voice actor puts on accents for. There’s just a lot of annoying white man story writing choices here. Also the “psychosis is a death sentence” mentality so supremely frustrating and demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of mental illness and what living with psychosis is like (doesn’t make people inherently violent or suicidal - shocker)
The .25 stars here are for Mary-Catherine’s arc. And while most of the female characters do feel very written by a man, the way Kate is written feels like a little boy’s love letter to his working class mom. There’s a few good emotional nuggets in here.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Racism and Vomit
Racism is tagged cuz of the racist side characters.mydearwatsonbooks's review against another edition
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Vomit
kait_sixcrowsbooks's review
However, about 40-45% of the way through I was starting to get a bad feeling about the different allegories, so I decided to look up spoilers, and I ended up being right. If you’re wanting to read this book for spoopy horror, and not some weird Christian “good vs evil” tripe, look elsewhere. If I knew what I was getting into beforehand, I would’ve steered clear of this one.
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Dementia
camillesuzannes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Pedophilia, Slavery, and Vomit
house_of_hannah's review against another edition
- 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
So this story is divided into seven parts, 135 chapters, and an epilogue. Yeah, I know. This means that the chapters are pretty short though, which really helps with the book not feeling as long as it is. My main fear going into it was that the story would be slow, or drag in the middle. It never dragged for me until the last 100 pages though, so I do wish the author had cut the story to be a little shorter.
it did feel like this could have ended at several different points. I had some moments where it felt like we were heading to the climax....but there were still 400+ pages left. It made me curious to see how this story could keep going without feeling bogged down, and it really surprised me how the stakes kept rising. I ended up really getting into the story, and binged the last 300 pages all today.
I had heard or read that this is a religious horror, but that doesn't really kick in until about half way through the book. I had actually thought I had been mistaken about that until I hit that point, but it ends up really pushing into it, so I'd stear clear if that type of horror isn't your thing.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that the adults are not complete idiots. I hate when a story makes the adults to be oblivious fools who can't see what's directly in front of them for the sake of the plot, so this book was a breath of fresh air. I also ended up liking the entire cast of characters even though there are a lot of them. The author does a fantastic job of humanizing them, so it's easy to connect with the town.
One thing that stood out to me, and I've noticed other reviewers have mentioned this as well, is that the children did not feel as if they were 7 years old. I often forgot that this is what their age was supposed to be, and imagined them as more 11-12 years old. Whenever their age was reiterated it just made me laugh, because there is just no way.
This story does get completely ridiculous, and sometimes it is laughably so. I pondered if I should lower the rating at all for that, but honestly I've enjoyed this book so much that I don't think I should.
I adored coming up with theories for what was happening in this book. There were so many moments where I gasped at the end of a chapter, and then read what had happened to my husband. I think this is a fantastic horror novel that any fan of the genre should read !
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction and Dementia
Minor: Vomit, Abortion, and Pregnancy
maddireads13's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Pregnancy
Minor: Abortion