Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano

25 reviews

davinmotion's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I enjoyed the mixed media nature of this book with it being passages, interviews, text messages, etc. It was a fun way to tell the story. 

The characters had flaws and felt believable, which was refreshing but also it didn’t feel like their redeeming qualities were brought up enough. Almost a smidge too negative. 

I feel like this book would be a great Supermassive game in the vein of Until Dawn. However, it sounds like it’s being adapted for television and I imagine it’ll be successful since it screams production value similar to Stranger Things. 

All in all, I think there are some fun ideas here but without spoiling, I don’t think it explores or takes  them far enough. I would consider reading something else by this author though, since I appreciate his creativity. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Grief, and Religious bigotry

If you like books in the vein of RL Stine stories, I think this could be the adult version. It’s not fleshed out enough, but if you want a fun thrill, I think this is good.

There are too many holes in this story for it to be anything stellar. 1- How does the monster shape-shift into things it doesn’t know? Are the objects what helps it do that? 2- Why did it take the “dead eleven” in the first place? Why was that never fully explained? 3- If the monster is stuck in the house and needs to lure people in, how could it leave the island? Can it even cross water? Why the fuck wouldn’t you leave? 4- The island sounds like it has no economy, so how does anyone live there and how do they afford to bring goods in? 5- Door county is not near Canada.

orizenda's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

An interesting culty, kind of folk horror-y (imo anyway), take on grief. This book wasn’t necessarily what I was expecting, but in saying that, I mean that it surprised me with some of the things it did. and I think the ways the audio version actually played with some of the storytelling too was interesting. 

Possibly getting into spoiler territory here? But I thought it was really interesting how a good portion of the story is told by willow to dominic, even though we don’t hear from him at all through the action of the story. I also appreciate how the story was complicated by the families torn apart by grief, and the multiple layers of storytelling that the story goes through to get to us. Like, how much are we supposed to take at face value, what’s been twisted by grief, what’s been warped through the various means of communication to get to us, etc. if that makes any sense at all. anyway. ty for coming to my ted talk

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, and Grief

vonaegir's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

i read this book about a week ago, and struggle to remember most of the characters' names. i didn't connect very much with anyone on a deep level, and found it overall predictable. however, the concept is fun and the writing is competent. knowing this is the author's first book explains a lot of the ways in which i felt this one fell flat - i see a lot of areas for the author to grow going forward and wouldn't hesitate to check out something else from him. i doubt i'll be revisiting this one very often, though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Grief

themelaniewaite's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If I had to quickly sum up the plot of this book, I’d say it’s Midnight Mass meets WandaVision meets the Supernatural episode “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” (s5, ep15). 

It was the cover that originally drew me in. And then the idea that this island was stuck living as thought it was still 1994 mixed with a missing persons plot - it all had me so curious. I didn’t realise when I bought it, that the story was essentially a “found footage” theme - the last one I’d read in that format had put me off the genre. And though it took a few chapters to get into the flow of this storytelling, once the story found its rhythm it was really well done and worth powering through. It definitely achieved what it set out to do. 

The plot was eerie and had me hooked, desperately eager to get answers for what million questions the plot threw in. All of which tied together so well. No stone was left unturned by the end of the story. 

There was something so satisfying in the way the ending came together, and I’m pleased with the way it all came together. If you’re looking for a story that has you questioning literally everything, this is the one for you. With each chapter, there are more questions but once it starts coming together, this slow burn mystery is so well executed. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Minor: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

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

1.0

The best thing about this book is the cover.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Body horror

whatiqreads's review

dark reflective tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

kylieqrada's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

This one scared me, I will not lie. Seminary House? You couldn’t pay me enough. I did not know this followed a grieving mother though and that was rough. Lesson learned - check the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent and Gaslighting

jourdanicus's review against another edition

dark reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

I really liked the premise of this book, and the writing style was propulsive and kept me engaged. I loved that the audiobook had multiple narrators!

Something about it is still just "meh" to me though. I think there could have been more tension maybe? I don't mind a horror novel that you kinda have figured out from the beginning if it's also supposed to be an allegory, but I felt like this book was trying to do that and then was too obvious to be an allegory. Like, the way that Pastor Rita

laid it all out for Willow when she was trapped in the demon house completely ruined the suspense of that moment. It was cartoonist, like the big villain reveals in Scooby Doo, and not what I would want out of a novel for adults.

Leave a little something to the imagination, ya know?

But anyways, I did enjoy it and do recommend it especially to fans of LOST. A lot of similar elements there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Medical content

heather667's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Ableism

cartermon4's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail