Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie

15 reviews

lavendar_fr0g's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

This book wasn’t scary to me, but the multiple perspectives shown here are bloody interesting. 

It makes me ask myself- what would I do to provide for my family? What would I do for my children? Would I care for my vampire child?

I felt sympathetic to everyone in this one, even when their desperation turned deadly. 

The ending was…odd though, which is my major gripe. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Self harm, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Car accident

Minor: Cannibalism, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Vomit

opplecopter's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Miscarriage, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Child death, Pregnancy, Gore, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, Cursing, Suicide, Vomit, and Police brutality

Minor: Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, and Sexual content

bleaksalad's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.5

Suffer The Children was a good read until it wasn’t. The premise is endearing and the way events play out is believable and horrific in exactly the way I had hoped. I loved that the true horrors of the book were not the vampire-like children, but the effects such an event had on parents. What the world turned into when parents would go to any length to save their children was truly the scariest part. 

However, I felt like I only ever knew the characters at a surface level, which made it hard for me to care about what happened to them. It also made it easier to hate them as events spiraled out of control. Ramona was an incredibly interesting character and her mental deterioration made total sense, but I just couldn’t help but wish her the WORST from the start. In the end, the only person with sane logic was David. 

Don’t be misled into thinking this is a creature feature or centered around the monstrous children. This horror novel focuses on the terrifying nature of humanity and how people react when their own is at stake. Definitely worth a read if you’re into horror, but it’ll be low on your list of favorite. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Alcoholism, Blood, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Vomit, Car accident, Gun violence, Suicide, Cursing, Kidnapping, and Sexual content

rwsmith's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

it took about 100 pages for the book to pick up. and those first 100 pages were

really tough to get through - the author writes about a parent's grief very well and it was honestly triggering for me.

you do get the perspectives of many, many different kinds of people, which i enjoyed.
i dont usually read horror - stories such as those tend to affect me a bit more than id like. ive never liked scary movies and i assumed i wouldnt like scary books either. i was mostly right. if you're into horror though, this book is probably great lol!
the writing was good and i enjoyed the format of changing perspectives, although there are parts of the book as well as chapters, and the perspective changes many times throughout each chapter. i dont know that all the division of the story helped a lot. i did read the book in two days, so maybe if you read it over a longer period those parts and chapters might mean more. 
the scientific aspect of this book was interesting, and i wish it was explored a bit more, but i understand why it wasnt. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Vomit, Death of parent, Confinement, Medical trauma, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Body horror, Murder, Blood, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Police brutality

Moderate: Cursing, Animal death, Cannibalism, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Miscarriage, and Genocide

Minor: Sexual content, Car accident, Drug use, and Deportation

charles_rowland's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

dilouie delivered as per usual. i’d say he’s one of the best horror authors of the decade

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Cannibalism, Violence, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Death of parent, Murder, Alcoholism, Grief, Blood, Self harm, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Grief, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Animal cruelty

echoes01's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Animal death, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Blood, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Child death, Death, Gore, and Grief

kather_doc's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Child death, Blood, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Suicide

xxkatastrophe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Suicide

Minor: Vomit

owlribbon's review against another edition

dark sad tense

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Child death, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, War, Suicide, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Gore

gia0203's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This is a harrowing study of what parents would do for their children. The urge to protect is not just a human instinct - indeed, these characters become so obsessed with the idea of keeping their children safe that their behaviour ultimately becomes like an animal’s. This book is all about the idea of a walking corpse that has just enough resemblance to a child to be worth loving… and ultimately; it makes you question how far you would go for your own family. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide, Alcohol, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual content