Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Какие большие зубки by Роуз Сабо, Rose Szabo

19 reviews

smokeyphynix's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

thisiscourt's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

I was expecting a much different story when I picked this up. Unfortunately there was not enough exposition for me to ever get attached to any characters. I know it was supposed to be mysterious, but some explanation was needed. We were dropped into the middle of a story and given no reason to care about Eleanor or the people around her or even the house. There was no real motivation for any of the characters’ actions, and especially Eleanor. I never understood the purpose of the Arthur character. The storyline of the friend at school was never really resolved or given importance. The switching between Eleanor’s and Persephone’s perspectives was incredibly confusing and unnecessary. The chapters were very long and could’ve benefitted from better pacing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

linnybear's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

This book is trying so hard to be something it is not and it's very obvious. It's almost like the author had a couple good ideas and tried to tie them together but was helf back by their own writing (which I think is a final proof that having creative writing education doesn't make you a good writer). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Homophobia

starreddust's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia and Fire/Fire injury

sssssoup's review against another edition

challenging 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: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Homophobia, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

hngisreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Bullying

debussy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

Look, the beginning of this book is confusing. You don't know what's going on, or why, but the weird monster family vibes and visuals are pretty on point so I continued. The story snaps into focus when Grandmere shows up, but it eventually starts to run out of steam when the mystery gets convoluted and Arthur's backstory is revealed and I completely stopped caring about everyone. Most of the reveals are done in heavy monologue, which took me out of the story. The characters were interesting but not to the point that I wanted to watch them bicker and threaten to murder each other. I also was not sure of the theme--stick with your family, even though they continually fear and abuse you? For what? I also took issue with the weird amount of unchallenged homophobia. It felt like the author was attempting to critique it, but did not at all succeed. 

The vibes and visuals were great, and the concept was on point, but the confused plot and character choices were just ruinous and made it an unsatisfying experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

Harry Szabo cements themself as one to watch with this killer debut. An excellent story about being an outsider, family, generational trauma, and love, this had me enthralled from beginning to end and in awe of their writing. Do yourself a favor and experience it for yourself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide attempt

nutm3g's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The best summarization of this book's concept is this, highly dysfunctional Addams Family with a nice helping of generational trauma. I really wanted to love this book, but there was just too much that felt lacking. It seemed as if it would be a build-up to healing old wounds, but even to the end tension in the family remained. It is a bit difficult to explain why this book did not reach its potential without giving away any spoilers. Regardless of all it lacked, the concept behind it was creative and entertaining which is why I have it 3 stars in the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and War

stormywolf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

4.0

 Coming off of two somewhat disappointing werewolf stories, and having a surprise spot opened up for October, I decided to seek out another werewolf story to see if I could satiate my craving for fangs and fur. Enter What Big Teeth which happened to be available in both e-book and audio formats in my library. I remembered this book mainly from its enticing cover, its wolfish reference to Red Riding Hood, and seeing it doing the rounds on Facebook earlier this year, but otherwise had no idea what it was about. So, deciding not to question my luck, I went ahead and sank my teeth into this story.

Read my full review at The Wolf's Den

Overall, despite it not being anything like I was expecting, I really came to love this simultaneously familiar and unique story. There was so much here that made me feel like I wanted to dust off my literary analysis skills from high school/college, from the gothic tone, to the dark themes, deep characters, and possible allegories; I think this could easily be a new literary classic. I tried to be somewhat vague in my review, so as not to spoil anything, since I want other readers to be surprised at all the twists and turns the story takes, especially since the cover, title, and summary don't give nearly enough clues. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys gothic themes, young adult narratives, complex characters and relationships, LGBTQIA+ stories, or just monsters in general. Whether you're looking for a spooky gothic tale to fit the time of year, or are simply wanting something out of the norm, What Big Teeth might be just what you're looking for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Gore, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia