Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Leech by Hiron Ennes

44 reviews

quirkydrinkerofink's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Sexual assault, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

bea_reads_books's review against another edition

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Violence, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Vomit, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism

liltakeawaygirl's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Vomit, Grief, and Colonisation

krhanson68's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

Very dark story. Complicated story with convoluted plot.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

One thing this book did really well was doing the gothic correctly, I've read too many contemporary gothic books (thinking of like 4) that either just recycled tropes with nothing interesting going for it outside of that, or completely missing the mark where gothic is simply the set dressing of a mansion with candelabras but the story itself didn't seem gothic. So this book understood the assignment. At the beginning I thought for sure this would be 5 stars for me, the ending missed the mark a little for me

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility and Suicide

beccalynnfrank's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Truly did not know what to expect at any time, definitely not a happy ending but a realistic one 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, and Murder

mrkusabi's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Classism

athenian_frog's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

The book can get very slow but when the horror kicks in it’s usually pretty engaging. My main issue is with the lulls in between, especially in the first half of the book.

BUT think there’s some really interesting reflection from the perspective of such a complex organism that Hiron Ennes includes! That and the character of Émile in general were highlights. The story went in a direction I was really not expecting—in a good way—and the ending was pretty rewarding.

Some of the ideas that strengthen the conclusion that I found in the book—like the value of one’s bodily autonomy—could have been better weaved throughout the book but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

PLEASE READ the content warnings below. Thanks! <3

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

-the baron’s family (whose mansion is where the majority of the book takes place) generally holds pretty misogynistic beliefs of a woman’s role in the family, specifically that they are “responsible” for having children/a son in particular -a female character has a history of miscarrying, makes one or two dark jokes about it -descriptions of medical procedures that might upset readers including: several instances of needle insertion in various places, sedated/paralyzed patients during a procedure, often without consent, the removal of a parasite fragment from the optic nerve post mortem, descriptions of childbirth - suicide is examined as a possible and very plausible reason that a character dies (via scalpel to the throat) -In the latter half of the book it is implied that a character ends up in an emotionally abusive relationship with a member of the barony. The sex they have (very vague) reads very much as coercive/non consensual because of the power the barony holds over the rest of the people living in the chateau. There are moments of physical abuse as well. - at least two characters vomit, and a couple more have something crawl out of their mouth

cadence99's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

A twisty turny fever dream like read. Liked this overall, though the ending felt a bit lackluster and not in keeping with the rest of the book

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ribbenkast's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.75

This book really impressed me with the way it is wirtten, Hiron Ennes really manages to write from the perspective of a super intelegent hivemind and sell it. The world building is amazing and is probably the best part of the book. It's got to be one of the most creative uses of the ghotic genre I've seen so far.

However the books suffers a bit from the gothic pitfall where in the first half it's just vibes and nothing much really happens. The pace really picks up near the ending though! Admittedly I do think the book ends on a bit of a weak note. I think there's space for a sequel I'll gladly pick up if it ever gets published. 

All in all, this was a great debut. I'll be certainly be on the lookout for any books that Hiron Ennes writes in the future. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism