Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

All Hallows by Christopher Golden

28 reviews

sonygaystation's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Pedophilia, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse and Infidelity

kyra_joy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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 really enjoyed the atmosphere of this book! Though it wasn’t scary it still gave a pretty spooky vibe. The characters were all equally as interesting so I did really enjoy the multiple characters pov. Perfect book to get cozy with during the fall season. It’s a little over the top in some sections, but overall super happy I pick it up.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

maregred's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Death of parent

mishmashreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Not a terrible book. But definitely not a good book either. 

The writing was good… ? I loved the feel of the neighborhood. Gave me Donnie Darko vibes. I love getting to know the characters and seeing their lives intersect. But also, the writing was bad. The phrase “hitched his/her breath” was used so many times it was distracting. One chapter literally spent pages building a climatic situation and then ended with the full sentence “And he died.” Also the whole Ruth and Zack storyline is super weird and I did not like it. Are we supposed to be learning about monsters among us? Cuz very bad job of pulling that metaphor off, if so.

There are a lot of characters with each chapter focused on one of them. Don’t put it down for too long or you will forget who is who. 

The book does not actually get anywhere close to action until 150+ pages in. Thank goodness the chapters were short. Christopher Golden should skip horror and just write fiction novels. I liked his characters. I liked his writing when it wasn’t in the “spooky” part of the book. The horror part of the book (aka the second half of the book) is not good.

3 stars, but if I was rating based on horror alone, it would have been 2. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Minor: Self harm and Suicidal thoughts

tzureader's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

3.75

 I’d consider this slow paced with most of the traditional Horror / scary stuff happening in the last 30% of the book with the first 70% playing out like a soap opera.  The book focuses on relationships, how people disappoint one another, and the supernatural creatures targeting them on Halloween.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Minor: Pedophilia

louiepotterbook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Outing, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

d0505's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, and Pedophilia

yomireads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Often, horror as a genre takes the fear of innocence lost and social taboos and uses sexual infidelity/deviance as tool to do so. All Hallows certainly has plenty of infidelity and the like, but I don't feel it furthers the horror. If anything it muddies the waters of the story with the characters personal drama. It felt out of place with the Cunning Man and these mysterious children.

The couple on the block proported to be an open couple that swings being used as a villainous presence outside of anything supernatural felt very close-minded especially.

Done well is the alienation children feel as their parents' troubles bleed into the rest of the family, and the fear of leaving behind the familiar. The lesbian character does feel a touch on the nose, but the fear of being outed and the tenuous hold on who to trust is good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Kidnapping

bloomandgloom's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.5

I had such high hopes for this book. It gave me the closest vibe of the Trick r' Treat movie and I appreciate it. The different stories and paths weaving together was a great way to tell a Halloween story. That's really the best part of this book. There isn't any horror to this story, at all. It's set in the 1980s in mid east Massachusetts. I appreciated the landmark references since I know the area and understand the forest behind the house vibes it was going for. 

I didn't care about any of the characters in this story, no one had enough development to make me root for them. The Cunning Man was not scary or interesting since we know nothing about him. The book would have seemed much better if there had been a local legend or a story people told young children to scare them but no one believes it. It could have done with some references of missing children on Halloween in different locations across the country or world. Overall, it just needed a little more mystery and lore to make it more believable. A family member also could have known someone that went missing to tie it together. 

I am not an author so I'm not going to pretend like it would have been easy or quick to add all of that in. 

Sadly, this was disappointing and not something I'd recommend as a Halloween read. I wouldn't even recommend it to someone younger because they might find it scary since there are a lot of adult topics discussed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Outing, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

zakura317's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Grief, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism