Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories, by Mariana Enríquez

73 reviews

pages_with_panda's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad

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

4.0

Because this is a collection of short stories by the author, I'm going to split the reviews up by story. I've also included content warnings for each story as well and a single sentence summary. 

 Angelita Unearthed: 5/5
Woman is haunted by the dead baby corpse of her great-aunt.
Really liked the story! Very simple but super creepy and unsettling. I thought the relationship between the two characters was kinda funny - almost siblings. Lowkey the last scene made me chuckle.
• Moderate: Death of a child, Body horror, Gore,

Our Lady of the Quarry: 4/5
Teenage kids sneak into a quarry for the summer.
Good story, nice build up. Love any kind of revenge story and this was no exception. Good for Natalie.
•  Moderate: Sexual content,
• Minor: Death,

The Cart: 2/5
A mysterious stranger shows up the neighborhood before horrible things start happening.
I did like where this story was going for the most part,. Again, I like revenge stories...But the story fell apart at the end and I couldn't really make heads-or-tails of what happened.
• Moderate: Excrement, Violence, Classism,
• Minor: Racism, Suicide, Animal death, Cannibalism

The Well: 5/5
A young girl suffers from severe anxiety of death and monsters.
Another favorite. Very, very unsettling and dark. The mystery surrounding what happened to her during that first trip was so interesting. Very well done. Sad ending.
• Moderate: Suicide,
• Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts,

Rambla Triste: 2/5
A neighborhood is haunted by murdered children.
I couldn't really understand the premise for this one at all. Was a little interesting but didn't seem to have a point to the story.
• Moderate: Pedophilia, Child abuse,
• Minor: Excrement, Child death,

The Lookout: 3/5
A Lady in a tower overlooks the hotel where she lives and invites another women to visit.
Had a nice "The Shinning" vibe and also some mystery regarding the Lady Upstairs. An okay story.
• Graphic: Self-harm,
• Minor: Rape, Attempted suicide, Drug abuse

Where are you, Dear Heart? : 5/5
A girl becomes obsessed with irregular heartbeats and tries to find the most imperfectly perfect one.
Incredibly unsettling. Can't stop thinking about this premise and the absolute horror of it. "What the fuck did I just read!?" But in a good, horrific way.
• Graphic: Medical
• Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Ableism,

Meat: 5/5
Two super fanatical fans of a rock star exhume his body and eat his corpse.
Another very disturbing story. Very well laid out and I really liked it. Horrific.
• Graphic: Suicide, Cannibalism,
• Moderate: Self-harm, Vomit
• Minor: Blood

Neither Baptism or Birthday: 3/5
A man tries to record a girl's hallucinations.
Very creepy story. Interesting build up as well. Ending fell a little flat.
• Moderate: Sexual content, Pedophilias, Mental illness, Self-harm

The Kids That Came Back: 5/5
Hundreds of missing children rematerialize but are the same age as when they disappeared.
I really liked this one. Super unsettling and creepy. Had a nice buildup as well and an interesting POV from Machi. (Interesting enough, compared to the Spanish version, the English version of this story had added a few sections of backstory that I think were completely unnecessary, especially because they added some slurs. And really added nothing to the story.)
• Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide
• Minor: Kidnapping, Death, Transphobic slur, Drug abuse,

Dangers of Smoking in Bed: 1/5
Woman smokes in bed.
Uninteresting. Couldn't really get into it. Thought the title story would be great but it fell flat.
• Moderate: Fire,
• Minor: Death, Sexual content, Blood

Back When We Talked to the Dead: 3/4
A group of girls use an Ouiji board. 
A basic premise but interesting anyways! Unsettling but not too bad. 
• Minor: Ableism slur (Spanish version) 

Overall review for the book: 4/5. Solid stories! This is a horror book so check content warnings. Not suitable for young readers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Sexual content, Self harm, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Ableism, Vomit, Gore, Excrement, Violence, Classism, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Cannibalism, Child death, and Body horror

Minor: Racism, Animal death, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, Cannibalism, and Rape

Spoiler

Use of transphobic slurs and ableist slurs

grace_alice's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Mental illness, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Child abuse, Trafficking, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Injury/injury detail, Drug abuse, and Drug use

cinnamonskye's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Suicide, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Physical abuse, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

bestbrocc's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Child abuse

cantfindmybookmark's review

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Pedophilia, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Death, Drug abuse, Excrement, Rape, Murder, Misogyny, Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

alreinwarth's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, Body shaming, Child death, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, Excrement, Drug use, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Self harm, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Death, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pedophilia

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Violence

Minor: Lesbophobia and Transphobia

cosyskog's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, and it definitely needs to come with multiple content warnings. However, maybe the ugliness of some of the characters is the real horror, the unspoken realisation that they are just like people we already know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Sexual violence, Child death, Child abuse, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Body shaming, Drug use, Sexual assault, Suicide, Ableism, Classism, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Cursing, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Car accident, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Police brutality

whimsicalish's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

2.75

Many of the stories were supernatural and mysterious. They were short, quick to read. Most ended very abruptly. I imagine the author didn't want to over explain and lose the tense atmosphere. But a couple of the stories would have build up, add the tension and then quickly end. It was jarring.

There's many realistic and difficult situations in this book. From physical abuse to suicidal ideation. But I really didn't need to read the ones with sexual actions involving underaged children. Yuck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Self harm

lostcupofstars's review against another edition

3.0

Honestly this had the most promising start. I was sure this would be a 5⭐️ read 😭

That first story had me IN and I have no doubt I will remember it for a really really long time.

Top stories: 

Angelita Unearthed

The Well

I then encountered a story (the only story to explicitly mention a person’s race, actually) with a black man introduced only to meet a (heavily insinuated) horrific end and that 5 ⭐️ started looking mighty 4⭐️

There were a few stories after this with some really good ideas and themes but none that really matched the energy this started with. And then I met a really long story with transphobic language and that 4⭐️ became a 3⭐️

This collection had so much potential. But ultimately it was far more tragic than it was horrific. I left a lot of those stories feeling sad just because so many horrible things were touched on but served no purpose. Barely even as plot devices, it felt like they were put in just to make the reader go ‘omg ew’ or ‘omg wth???’ 

It just wasn’t the ‘horror’ collection I was hoping for. But those two stand out stories will 100% stick with me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, and Transphobia

denlia's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Torture, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal death, Body horror, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Excrement, Homophobia, Death, Drug use, Terminal illness, and Transphobia