Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Halloween by Curtis Richards

3 reviews

henrygravesprince's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

1.5

I have a lot of thoughts about this novelization that I’ll probably later make into a full-fledged review, but for now, I just want to say I hate a majority of the choices made around Michael’s character and background for this novelization, and the inconsistency in the assigned motive is bizarre: it feels as if the author wants Michael’s motive to have been that

he was literally possessed by a cursed Celtic spirit, compelled by psychosis, and sexually repressed

all at once, and fails both to capture the ambiguity of the film or compensate that with a compelling character study. On top of seeming to instead participate in the sort of hysteria around “times changing” and the preservation of the sanitized, false suburban American dream/nightmare that the film commentated on, the prose itself feels sort of juvenile (in a way I would have forgiven if it had provided literally anything substantial to outweigh that negative), and overall, I’d hesitate to recommend this to even to other people who love Halloween (1978) as much as I do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Stalking, Sexual violence, Incest, Car accident, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Racial slurs, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Bullying, Medical content, and Body shaming

dragonbloom's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I actually really enjoyed this. IMO, much better than the original movie. An interesting expansion on why the crimes were committed, highly suspenseful and I felt more sympathetic towards the protagonists. If you enjoyed the movie, it’s worth a read. If you didn’t enjoy the movie but might like the concept handled differently... Worth a read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Medical trauma, and Misogyny

Medical trauma, medical content, ableism: It is not intended to be be that way, but this book could certainly be very upsetting to a survivor of medical trauma or abuse. There are graphic asylum scenes, and Doctor Loomis is described as drugging patients he “believes cannot recover” to prevent them from pleading their case for release to a judge. Some comments exchanged by medical professionals about their patients are highly ableist. Animal death, cruelty: The antagonist kills a dog, in detail. It is self defence, sort of, as he shouldn’t have been in the garden in the first place. Stalking: The antagonist stalks his victims for a few hours before killing them. Sexual content: There are a few scenes of undressing, and one graphic sex scene. Misogyny: Many of the descriptions of women have aged poorly, as there is far too much talk of their breasts unnecessarily. Confinement: The antagonist is locked in a prison/mental ward for 15 years, though

it is implied he could leave any time he wanted.

Many early scenes take place here. Violence, murder: the book is a slasher, and the scenes of the kills are graphic.

ladiicatherine's review against another edition

dark fast-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? No

2.0

I mean, it definitely wasn’t the movie which is very near to perfection in my opinion.  

The events were there but extended upon in parts and some of the events were out of sequence.

Hearing the character’s thoughts was very strange and, in a way, pulled me away from things. 

I also don’t know if I got the full story given it was a Kindle edition.  It seemed to cut off very abruptly at the end.  However, getting your hands on a physical copy that is reasonably priced is difficult so I might never know if there was supposed to be more at the end!

It just could have been better overall.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Stalking, and Violence