Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

10 reviews

jillaay_h's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

mlovesbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-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

3.0

Unfortunately, this is the weakest of the trilogy for me. It just goes too off-the-walls crazy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark emotional 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 think this might be one of the best conclusions to a trilogy that has ever existed. The incorporation of horror rules (the Scream 3 rules are references explicitly by characters), the emphasis that the Final Girl does not exist without a community and family supporting her, the idea that to truly cure what ails a toxic society requires you to go and right the original wrong that was committed there and that the original wrong is violence against Native people, specifically Native women...everything is flawlessly done. The prose is beautiful, I was so invested in the characters... truly one of the best endings of a trilogy I could imagine. It is ridiculously violent, with so many deaths that are pointless in that if the characters had just listened or been more careful, they would have lived, but again serve to emphasize the point of a toxic culture leading to more and more easily avoidable deaths. 

 

It has been a while since a character's death hit me so hard, but Banner's had me spiraling in the kitchen at 11:30 p.m. I was so, so sad about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Pedophilia, Racism, and Self harm

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

paronomaniac's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, and Sexual assault

elysianbud's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

I miss Jade Daniels already. 

Stephen Graham Jones gutted me like a fish. Feel like Casey Becker hanging from a tree with my innards falling out.

There's a bit in the acknowledgements (which I also cried at, because I don't want this to be the end) where he says "the cool thing about trilogies is you get to use every last part of the buffalo". By fuck did he use every last part--everything goes down in this finale. All the town lore combines and Proofrock undergoes it's one last hectic and gory night of chaos and blood-shed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

poetsofsweetpea's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

It is always a shock to me when a horror novel wrecks me.  It's not that it is hard to bring me to tears, coffee commercials at Christmas time can do it.  It's just, when a novel spends a good amount of time ripping the guts from its characters, I figure mine are safe.  The Angel of Indian Lake though, gutted me.  It's not just that I love Jade. She's one of the few characters in fiction that I genuinely adore, that I want to reach into the pages of the book and shake because she can't see how special she is. It's also because her growth is so completely perfect.   While the other novels in the series felt like love letters to the genre of slashers, this third and final installment felt, to me, like an homage to the American experience.  In that it highlighted our obsession with pop culture until it mirrors our everyday lives.  The seeds may come from foreign places, but the fruit is all ours, the soil, the climate, and the future of the plant are in the hands of the depraved and brave.  There are so many things I want to say about this novel. I want to write about why this book made me cry, but I hate spoilers in reviews.  I'm also never sure if it is just me or if every reader will love it as much as I do.  There were fewer POV's in this one and I was grateful for that.  The POV's that emerge also had voices that were different. I was never lost in who was telling me the story.  I am glad most of it was from Jade. I listened to the audio book and having Steven King be the voice of the teacher was so perfect.  I almost don't want to tell anyone, just so it can hit them the way it hit me.   In a lot of ways The Angel of Indian Lake felt like three books, like there were three final scenes.  The book was full of blood.  It was leaking out on every page, but it also had heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

annact's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

This book, despite its horror, is a love letter.

It is a love letter to being alive. A love letter to finding people that make it feel worth it. A love letter to fighting for them, but also fighting for yourself. To finally, finally fighting for yourself. A love letter to surviving despite how much the world doesn't want you to. To standing up when it knocks you down, and saying, "not this day". A love letter to surviving despite how much you don't want you to. To putting down the knife. To having a friend who loves you enough to hold you to their chest, to not let you sink under the weight of the world, to not let you betray yourself with your own hand. A love letter to living, not just surviving. To building a life. 

A love letter to Jade fucking Daniels, the angel of Indian Lake. Jade Daniels, the final girl. Jade Daniels, who survived despite it all, not out of luck, but sheer determination and force of will. 

Jade is probably my favorite character of all time. Thank you, Stephen. This was a fitting ending to a series that started my heart like the chainsaw it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Pedophilia

Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark tense 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Confinement, Genocide, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

grimdark_dad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail