Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Reprieve by James Han Mattson

10 reviews

bebidocrimes's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

The summary for this book, while not exactly misleading, is a lot flashier than what is presented in text. A murder happens in a full contact haunted escape room, but the real meat of the story is the characters' backgrounds, and what led each of them into this situation. It takes a look at the toxicity of sexism, racial fetishism, and entitlement. I really enjoyed the concept of the Quigley House as a whole, even if I'm too chicken to set foot in a place like that, and I'm imagining how vindicated the characters who condemned the attraction from the beginning must feel. Overall, a good read even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

ouijabroad's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

1.5

This book had me hooked in the beginning, but ultimately it didn’t accomplish anything. I think tackling racism in horror (as there IS a lot in horror genre) could have been meaningful,  but in this case it just didn’t accomplish anything.

As others have said,

I still don’t understand John’s obsession with Bryan or his motive for killing him. I don’t understand how it benefited him in any way…if anything it hurt him since the Quigley House couldn’t stay open after the murder.

Also, LOTS of fatphobia. Anyone described as beautiful or good looking is always thin, but anyone who is in a larger body we need to be reminded all the time that they are large and jiggle etc etc especially when it came to Rae. An unlikeable fat character who talks about food???? How original. 

This author talks about racism, stereotyping and xenophobia, but I think he needs to examine his own biases.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Cancer

jenmcvay's review against another edition

dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Racism, Blood, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

d3nim_diva's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

mxajlikesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gore, Infidelity, and Alcohol

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Medical content

sunsetcity's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

lizardbet's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

corinnereads7's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

Before I say anything else, I need to address what I feel is glaring anti-fat bias on the part of the author. For all this book attempted to do with racism, it sure does have a lot of casual fatphobia… I started keeping a list because it kept popping up. Every fat character is mean, stupid or insane: side characters who are entirely one-dimensional. Examples: “Rae - perennially bloated, flatulent and ornery…”; “flapping her arm fat”; “pasty, obese”.

Anyways, despite this, I was able to complete the book because it was very unique and I wanted to see how the end turned out. I did like the structure of the novel, going back and forth between court transcripts of a murder trial and backstories of the various people involved. The scenes in the haunted house were mostly immersive, but there were also times where I had to reread scenes because their believability factor along with the explanations of the room’s setup left something to be desired.

(See: leaping off a bed toward a chest of drawers and somehow grabbing the handle of a drawer, opening it, reaching inside and pulling out an envelope. This is physically impossible to do while mid-air.)

The characters felt decently well developed, some more than others, but again the believability of motives weren’t always there for me.

Jaidee’s desire to assimilate to whiteness was completely realistic, however the intense obsession with Victor and rearranging of his entire life around this man, was pretty impossible to believe. Kendra’s desperation for Shawn (founded on a lukewarm romance) was also a strange way to have her decide to work at Quigley; she was already a huge horror fan, why would her long-distance boyfriend be the driving factor in her pursuit of this job? Leonard with his fetishization and possession of Boodhri felt maybe the most realistic. This book has more characters with over the top toxic obsessions than a romcom!

Overall, I enjoyed the book and found it interesting the way he explored racism and specifically anti-Blackness, just wish he had omitted the fatphobia and built up the character motives a bit more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

stevie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail