Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

15 reviews

kassidyreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Physical abuse, Gore, Drug use, Terminal illness, Death, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Child abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Torture

zany25's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I think this book might work best if you read it kinda fast because there are definitely some slowdown sections that might drag, but I found enjoyable anyways. To me this book is all vibes, gothic classist mean girl lesbian vampire vibes. Which I liked, I wouldn’t say the plot is terribly strong until the ending, but if you’re along for the ride it’s definitely easy to get pulled in.

Also I’ve drawn blood for work in the real world and their blood letting descriptions were pretty spot on, aside from the sprinkling of supernatural of course, I enjoyed how they described the veins and scarring as a nice realistic touch. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death, Alcohol, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Mental illness, Self harm, Incest, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Terminal illness, and Addiction

slicebread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Honestly I expected so much more…it’s not my type of story 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Blood, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Violence, Terminal illness, Self harm, Murder, Gore, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Cannibalism

giulianalb99's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Ehm… ¿qué acabo de leer? 
La verdad es que el libro como tal no está mal y la pluma de la autora es espectacular pero me ha dejado un poco sin más.

Tenía unas expectativas medias tirando a altas porque la sinopsis me pareció bastante buena, pero ha acabado siendo otro libro que seguramente acabe olvidando desgraciadamente. La idea principal que es básicamente cómo la nobleza se aprovecha de los más débiles bebiendo literalmente su sangre es genial pero, durante todo el libro, no pasa absolutamente nada salvo el proceso que va tomando la relación bastante tóxica entre la protagonista y Lisavet. Estaba en el 70% y todavía no pasaba nada hasta que en los últimos capítulos BOOM, y después me he quedado en plan “¿ya está?”. Leer tantas páginas de puro aburrimiento (que repito, la autora escribe súper bien) y relleno para llegar al final y que se resuelva todo tan rápido no me ha convencido del todo.
Lo que sí me ha gustado es cómo la autora ha plasmado (de manera digámoslo extraña) cómo los ricos obtienen y hacen lo que quieren mientras se aprovechan de los que no tienen tanto para vivir, así como las cosas tan raras que pueden llegar a hacer pagando infinitas sumas de dinero.

¿Recomendaría este libro? Sí, pero no creo que sea para todo el mundo ya que contiene sangre, tortura, horror, es bastante gore, abuso de sustancias tóxicas, relación tóxica, canibalismo, muerte, y un largo etcétera. Recomiendo leáis los trigger warnings antes de empezar el libro.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Murder, Terminal illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Bullying, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Torture, and Violence

mfrisk's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

I really enjoyed this read - it felt like a cross between Ready or Not and a classic gothic vampire story. The characters felt well developed, the premise continued to unfold as the atmosphere was explored, and the finale was well done. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Gore, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death and Child abuse

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Drug use, Body horror, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Bullying, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Medical content, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Murder, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

lostinworlds's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Gore, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement and Cannibalism

phantasmaboo's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense

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

3.5

House of Hunger is a horror/mystery book that tells the story of Marion, a young woman who has grown up in the slums of a large city and later accepts a position as a Blood maiden to Lisavet (a noblewoman). Marion quickly captures Lisavet's attention, but also notices that not all is right with this supposed contract. 

I thought the plot of this book was okay. The horror elements were much stronger than the mystery elements. Outside of the final 20% of the book, there really isn't too much investigating. The mystery is also quite easy to decipher and completely predictable. Still, there isn't a dull moment in this book, but without feeling overly action-packed. 

Character-wise, I loved Marion and Lisavet, but with that they and the other characters were a bit more developed. With five to 6 Bloodmaidens, the servants, and the two principle characters, there seemed to be little time to really delve into everyone with the same depth. Still, I found it sufficient to provide an entertaining and tense story. In particular, I thought that the bonds between Lisavet and Marion should have been explored more although there was enough there for me to extrapolate more about their relationships and their motives. 

Overall, I gave the book 3.5 stars. I think it's worth the read if you're into horror with a bit of mystery, but not the other way around. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Incest

Minor: Death of parent

bluejayreads's review against another edition

3.0

I have been dealing with some serious brain fog lately. This is the first book I’ve actually managed to finish in almost two weeks. It’s been hard to focus on reading anything, and that has definitely affected my reading experience. So there is a definite grain of salt to be added to the following opinions. 

This book went hard on the dark and disturbing Gothic vibes, leaning into the pleasure in pain, debauchery, and hedonism of a wealthy blood-drinking court. But that’s about all there is to this book – vibes. There’s nothing deeper or richer than that. 

The world is in general badly explained. Stuff like the political interactions of major and minor noble houses gets info-dumped, even though none of it matters and only one character from a house besides the House of Hunger is at all relevant. Stuff that actually was interesting and relevant to world-building and the overall atmosphere were completely glossed over. For example, a few sentences towards the beginning indicate that the north part of the world may be some sort of different realm or fae dimension that somehow connected to the ordinary world, but that is never explained or even confirmed. 

The biggest drawback was the characters had absolutely no motivation. They do things for no discernable reason and stop doing them for no discernable reason, and nobody seems to think that people could have reasons. Nobody has desires or reasons to act. Marion, the protagonist, states some motivations and desires, but she doesn’t act like she has any. At one point, she decides on a course of action because the plot said so and practically says as much. I can’t even call the characters flat because they have to have at least one dimension for that. Most of the characters were bland pretty girls in pretty dresses drifting through a gothic mansion at the whims of the author. 

This book is a strange reading experience because I 100% get what it’s going for. I intellectually know it’s going for a dark, creepy, gothic feeling, dripping with blood and sex and debauchery and hedonism. In my head I know that’s the picture that it’s trying to paint. But it stays in my head. There’s no feeling to it. The strange pacing probably helped with that, spending over half on setup that skipped over months at a time and then slamming directly to climax with hardly any middle to develop an actual story. Maybe it’s because of my brain fog, or maybe because the characters felt so lifeless. But it was all tell and no show. There were definite vibes, but no mood or atmosphere whatsoever. 

I think I finished reading this book because I wanted a dark and atmospheric gothic fantasy horror. I expected something rich, lush, and atmospheric, with blood and silk and sex and horror blending into a velvet tapestry of violent delights, and kept reading hoping it would show up eventually. But what I actually got was the LaCroix of gothic novels – hints of flavor enough to tell what it’s supposed to be, but nowhere close to real or satisfying. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Terminal illness, Death, Confinement, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Drug use

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Animal death

pale_faced_fear's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Murder, Blood, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Violence, Gore, and Infidelity

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Incest