Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

NOS4A2, by Joe Hill

18 reviews

spoookycat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Animal death, Violence, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Child death, Death, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Gore, Addiction, Cursing, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Self harm, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Ableism, and Rape

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Drug abuse

ranocchietto's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed the novel, I particularly liked the well-rounded characters, how each had its distinctive "voice" and the descriptions matched their personalities.

The book deals with cycles of trauma, growing up and the loss of innocence, and how people close to us make a difference in our lives, it was quite moving at times.

I would say my main problem was with the pacing, it felt unfocused towards the last third, it would have benefited from fewer digressions. I also felt the tone towards the end didn't match the tension the author was probably going for, but it didn't really spoil the experience for me.

Do check the content warnings before reading, it can get a bit heavy. The fatphobic undertones made it quite uncomfortable for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, Gore, Child abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Death, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Rape, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Cancer, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Incest

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

1.75

Caution: There are animal deaths that get way more detail and time than the final deaths in the book.

Spoiler

You don't even see Vic die on page you just know she's gravely injured and then her son recollects that she died. Manx simply gets an engine to his chest. Hooper the dog gets hammered to near death and then ran over.

This book isn't so much horror as gore porn. It was a drag to push through from about 61% of the book on. One of the only fat characters gets a "happy ending" only once he becomes thin and goes to finish something saying he was told to when this wasn't ever shown to the reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Animal death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Body shaming

Minor: Antisemitism, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Self harm

tieflingkisser's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Violence, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Car accident, and Confinement

Moderate: Pedophilia, Gore, Drug abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Addiction

podanotherjessi's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Wow. I wish I had read this in December because walking into a store and hearing Christmas carols while I was in the middle of this would have been horrific. This definitely has some flaws; the story gets a little muddled at points. The choice to play with timelines was maybe a mistake. Definitely has the penchant of a lot of horror of leaning on sexual assault and child abuse for scaring the reader, but not too often. Vic is a great character, flaws and all. Wayne is good too. Lou left a little to be desired though. Manx, however, is a fantastic villain, all the more because he truly thinks that he's doing the right thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Rape, and Mental illness

caidyn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

CW: rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, murder, child death, child abuse, drug use, mental illness, and general violence

Apparently, all it took was trying multiple of Hill's books (including this one) a few times and also buddy reading one with my very good friend to finally find a book I like by this author. I mean, I've tried him so many times with so many books that this was a last-ditch effort. And I really enjoyed it!

I like how the book was split up and it felt like there were multiple climaxes in it. A first with Vic when she was a kid, then another when she was an adult. I also found Bing ten times freakier than Manx. Honestly, he was scarier to me because he was so unhinged, although that's what Manx profited off of. Then, there's the vampire mythos of it almost being like an energy vampire, so that was fun.

I think the only thing that was a pro and a con was that it piggybacked so much off his dad's works. In my opinion, that's the double-edged sword for Hill. On one hand, it's fun to see him linking his books in with his father's creations and seeing little Easter eggs in that regard. It also comforts me because I know that Hill will take charge of his dad's unfinished manuscripts when he eventually dies and will be able to keep it going for a while. On the other hand, I wish that Hill was more of his own person and didn't rely on those little things. Again, a double-edged sword that is both good and bad.

So, overall, I did enjoy it. I'm glad that I liked this and can feel confident that I'll try some of his books again. Maybe not Horns since I've tried it twice already and DNFed both times, but I will try him again in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Child death, Child abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, and Violence

rosedtide's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Sexual violence

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

NOS4A2 is smartly written, insightful, reflects an understanding of inner life... and is a spiraling well of darkness and depravity so deep that I had to take a several month break before finishing it. A horror novel, both damn good and deeply disturbing.

Horror is not my usual genre (and reading this book on my lunch break was a TERRIBLE idea), but I am glad that I read this book, and I am optimistic that I'll like more books by this author, as I hadn't read his work before. If you like horror, I recommend it. If you aren't sure, give it a try, but don't try to push through if it stresses you out too much because it will NOT let up.

*Updating my review to say that after thinking more about the ableism surrounding a secondary character's stutter (difficulty speaking is treated as part of the horror), and killing a character immediately after heavily implying that they're queer, I no longer highly recommend this, but if you already like horror you might enjoy it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, and Mental illness

CW for ableism, sexual assault, violence, gore, mental illness, child death, major character death, death.