Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

La chica de al lado, by Jack Ketchum

40 reviews

dimeryrene's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

Very hard to rate. Toes the line of torture porn and simply telling the horrific events. I know a lot was changed too, so do with that what you will. Hard to say if a book like this should exist. Hard all around. I think it was good, but I would never reread it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Confinement, Violence, Torture, Child abuse, Bullying, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Excrement, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

emilyrw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual harassment, Rape, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

stacymania's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was my first Jack Ketchum book, and now I need more! I've heard they're difficult to track down so fingers crossed!  

The story starts out nice enough; two girls taken in by their aunt after a tragic accident. Narrated by the boy next door.

However, as events slowly turn to the worst, I couldn't keep this book out of my hands. Growing fear, disgust and absolute outraged gripped me. I would close the book, fearing the worst and find myself reading again almost immediately. I needed to know what happened at every turn.

TGND deals with extreme subject matter, yet Ketchum shows us just enough of the horror to keep it digestible. The unwritten horrors are implied enough that they blooms in the reader's mind, which shows his absolute talent for writing.

I have never hated a character as much as I loathed the main antagonist in The Girl Next Door. I wanted to reach into the pages and destroy her. I was so angry and devastatingly frustrated! 

Ketchum formed these characters and events so well that I was fully immersed and transported into the story. Although this was probably the most horrific and difficult book I've read, it has become an immediate favourite of mine. 

I need more Ketchum!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, and Addiction

stardustdreamer's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Torture, Blood, Gore, Grief, Bullying, Excrement, Murder, Gaslighting, Rape, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

ananamauvais's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Self harm, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Body shaming, Child death, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Injury/injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Car accident and Pedophilia

mirandawood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This is the story of Sylvia Likens. There’s also a blend of other crimes, some characters added and changed than the true story, but the entire time all I could think about was Sylvia. From the burns, the sexual abuse, the words carved into her torso, the basement imprisonment, the neighborhood kids encouraged to abuse her, that is Sylvia’s tragic story. I’m sad not to see her mentioned in an authors note or anything because this is so heavily based on her. 

There are so many triggers in this if you can’t already tell. Before reading this, I highly recommend researching Sylvia Likens. This book uses a first persons point of view of the abuse which makes it a lot darker than reading a true crime outline. If you can’t get through that, then don’t pick this up. It’s very hard to stomach at points, parts have even been left out intentionally by the author because of he graphic it would be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Body horror, Child death, and Injury/injury detail

chloereads_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Violence

danielvanbeethoven's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Blood, Confinement, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Incest, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

andrea_95's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Please be aware that this book is a lot to handle. It is not only scary, it is terrifying, and will leave you completely speechless by what is happening. It is based on the true murder of Sylvia Likens which makes the reading experience even more uncomfortable and tense. It is a book that will stay with you and make you question whether humanity is inherently good when stuff like this actually happened.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Torture, Rape, Child death, Confinement, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, and Child abuse

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Excrement

Minor: Car accident and Death of parent

svangleboyer's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.0

 I find it so hard to do reviews for books with such triggering content, but I will give it a try.

The Girl Next Door is loosely based on an actual event where a woman and her children, even the neighbor kids at times, tortured and raped a young girl until she died. There are some pretty graphic scenes and a lot of cringeworthy scenes so definitely NOT for the faint hearted.

The Girl Next Door does a great job on showing that monsters can be very much human and the lengths that people can and will go to hurt others. The book is definitely heartbreaking and brought me to tears.

Of course, the majority of the characters in this novel are horrible so I can't say that I really loved any of the characters except for Meg and Susan. I do love how Meg continues to be so strong and fight so hard through this horrible experience. I also love the devotion of Meg to her sister Susan, and it was the one shining light through the whole novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Torture, Confinement, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Mental illness