Reviews tagging 'Child death'

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

21 reviews

cryptidrea's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Lesbophobia

nadiarausa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Vomit, Murder, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Homophobia, Infertility, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Pregnancy

daniellestarredpages's review

2.0

I honestly have no idea why I finished this book. I gave it an extra half star just because I manged to finish it so that bumped it up from 1.5 stars.

I have to say I wasn't the biggest fan of the way the author left the existence of ghosts up to readers. As a concept I understand it but personally I felt this wasn't the story to leave that plot point open.

I was quite apathetic toward the main character and found her P.O.V a slog to get through but I also found the interspersed psychologist sessions to be slow as well, so I really can't say zi enjoyed much of the of the writing in this book.

The Sapphic relationship, I think did a good job of showing a toxic obsession. So that is one element I guess I could add to the pros list concerning this book.

Overall I can definitely say I didn't enjoy this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Incest, Infertility, and Miscarriage

zenzi2read's review

slow-paced

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

3.75

Overall, this was a dark intense read. I liked that it was generally ambiguous about its protagonist, and whether the spirit she saw were real. I did not like that. It used the poor communication trope. That was the weakest part of the book for me. The last 30 pages for me or the weakest, but it was very strong until then.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse and Xenophobia

Minor: Child death

zgreyz's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Infertility, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Minor: War

doomham's review

dark mysterious slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Child death, Incest, Sexual assault, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Animal death

bookeduntil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• 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: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Classism

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the eARC!

First off, I loved that the author gives content warnings! It’s something I think every book should have. Now into the review-

The novel is set in The Netherlands during the 1950s. I was so excited to discover this since I haven’t read many books set in The Netherlands!

The story goes back and forth between the main plot and transcripts of Dr/patient interviews at the end of each chapter. It made the plot feel more driven, and was a big reason why I didn’t want to put it down! 

Agnes is part Indo, and we learn a bit about the culture as well as the history of Dutch colonization in Indonesia. I found it very interesting and learned a lot I didn’t know before about that piece of history!

Although the story is eerie and disturbing at times, it also has an undertone of warmth and affection, especially regarding the found family between the characters! The book slowed down a little bit in the middle but overall it was an engaging story. I enjoyed the complex characters and the unique ghost story aspect, with having spirit companion instead of being unwillingly haunted.

I did half guess a couple of the twists but they were still really well written! The novel was a quiet horror book with more disturbing imagery than fast paced action. The imagery of Ruth gave me nightmares and made me scared of the dark for sure 😭

Fantastic gothic story with a haunting, atmospheric setting and sapphic romance subplot! I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for the author’s next book 🤍 I enjoyed the book and the story but it wasn’t exactly what I hoped for. It was slower paced than what I wanted/hoped for and I kind of expected more action based on the synopsis. It was good just not great, if that makes sense?

I’d recommend for anyone wanting a sapphic love story (that’s not a romance book), unique haunting/ghost story, or a gothic horror set in an eerie estate!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Suicide attempt

emily_journals's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.0

This book was a really solid read and a strong debut novel and I will definitely have my eye on this author moving forward. 

I really enjoyed the inter-character relationships going on in this book and I really loved the world-building.  You can tell that the author really took time to develop the relationships in this book, especially those between Roos and Ruth and between Roos and Agnes. The ghost/spirit lore established in this book was so intriguing and unique. The level of intricacy in this lore of relating not only how someone dies, but where their body resides to how a spirit comes to be and has to be reawakened was really brilliantly done. 

As typically expected when reading a debut novel, there were some craft issues with this book. While I did really love the inter-character relationships in this book, I did think that the character development of singular characters could have been explored more. I also thought that the pacing of this book was a bit off, this book felt very slow and drawn out for the level of plot and character development that were happening within this book, but I think learning when to draw out or condense parts of a story typically come with practice so I'm usually a little more forgiving of debut authors on pacing. My biggest complaint about this book is that even though it was a horror novel and there was a level of anticipation as certain points, I felt that this book was greatly lacking in suspense. For me, the interview framing device was taking suspense out of this story rather than adding to it and I wish that the framing had been done a little differently so that I still felt suspense going through this story. 

Overall, this was a very strong debut and the character relationships and lore building generally outweighed the craft issues for me. 

ARC provided by NetGalley.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

pattytru08's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship