Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

11 reviews

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

shedevls's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

the only downside to this book is that the series is over and i'm really going to miss jade 😭 she's easily one of my all time favourite characters and, even though i'm someone who can never seem to reread books for a number of reasons, i know this entire trilogy is going to be the exception.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Grief

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Pedophilia, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

1.75

I get that this book is a metaphor, but I couldn’t get past the plot itself. I feel like I suffered through three books because of a false promise that my life would be altered for the effort. It was nice to see Jade grow up, but really, a last resort kind of book for me - to be read if there’s nothing left to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

zelephante's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Vomit, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

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

chainsawheartbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

Thank you, Jade Daniels, for being the sort of horror-loving, scared yet tough as nails final girl that I can actually see a piece of myself in 🧡

This is a perfect end to a brilliant trilogy, that’s not to say I’m not heartbroken to have to say goodbye to Jade, Letha and all of Proofrock though. 

Reading this was like taking a big, deep breath before saying goodbye to life long friends, and my god it was heart wrenching.

The story was excellent, and, as always, told so beautifully, that even when I was reading through tears I didn’t want to reach the end.

I can’t wait to re-read through this series sometime in the future and rediscover the piece of my heart that will forever live on Melanie’s bench overlooking Indian Lake.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation

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

catsandbookstacks's review against another edition

3.0

*Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the eARC and physical ARC.* 

Book three of the Indian Lake Trilogy pulls no punches with the esoteric horror movie references and elaborate deaths. I love Jade in My Heart Is a Chainsaw and Don't Fear the Reaper, so I had really high hopes for the final installment.

The first 30% had me riveted but then fell flat. With the change of POV between all the books, the first person point of view in this ended up being my least favourite. Jade wasn't back to her fever dream dialogue of book one but she just couldn't keep my attention with the meandering. There ended up being too many out of nowhere threads to wrap up and I lost my sense of caring. I don't know how I managed to be bored with chainsaws, bears, and "Chucky" but it happened.

Happy to have read and finished the trilogy, but I think I'll be imagining that it's only a duology.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Medical content, and Kidnapping

Minor: Ableism, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and Colonisation

hydecircus's review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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? Yes

4.0

I'm going to miss Jade forever she truely is one of the best protagonists in the world to me. I know "we can't pick our genre" but I am sad she and Letha didn't get together, but at least we got confirmation that Jade is into women and honestly who knows what the future holds for them... But God. What a final installment. I love how well this book balances so many different types of killers at once and yet ties it all together in the end... Oh Jade... I'll miss you forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

herelieshenry's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

I’m seriously starting to question if it’s possible for SGJ to bite off more than he can chew, because you would think with all of the things he’s attempting to do in this book, that if he could, it would be now. But instead, this book succeeds in being jam-packed to the gills with ideas, visceral gore, gut-wrenching tragedy and the brutal beauty of horror, and tying up each of the loose ends from the previous installments, weaving all of the thematic threads into one, without being off any worse for it. It falls in the middle of the pacing of the first and second books, full of action from the get-go without feeling rushed or bogged down. While the second book was about cycles, this book is about putting an end to them. It brings a parallel between the ways Jade’s parents failed her

—her father’s abuse, her mother’s inaction—

and shows us the snap in that cycle of harm,

shows us instead a dutiful, loving father and a mother who will go to the ends of earth to do right by her daughter in Letha and Banner

. This book was dedicated to Jason Voorhees, and I think I can see why: the love and fury of Pamela Voorhees sings through this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation