Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

NOS4A2, by Joe Hill

23 reviews

chemical_crash's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual assault

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is about a woman who has the power of finding things and a scary man who kidnaps children to take them to Christmasland. Chaos ensues.

Things I liked: 

• The characters were great and felt realistic. We had time to get to know and love them before anything seriously terrible happened to them.
• The magical realism elements were really fun.
• There was a lot of tension! I genuinely didn't know what direction the story was going to go in. There wasn't a dramatic twist or anything, but I didn't predict the ending.
• The villains were scary. I didn't feel very scared when reading this book, but the first encounter the MC has with the villain is very stressful and tense.
• It all felt fairly original.
• We weren't overloaded with exposition. We slowly figured out what was going on as the characters did. I appreciated this!

Things I didn't like:

• As can be expected in a horror novel, theres a few upsetting/disturbing scenes.
• I get a little flustered in books when people have serious injuries and can just carry on like they're not in an absolute world of pain. Again, this seems typical in horror/thriller novels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Self harm, Violence, Stalking, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Police brutality

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Medical content, Car accident, Blood, Cursing, Rape, Misogyny, and Alcohol

Minor: Incest and Cancer

Animal death:

Spoiler

a dog gets hit by a car and then it's head smashed in with a hammer. Very upsetting scene.

Child Abuse: Not sure if what happens to the kids exactly counts as child abuse, but they go through some stuff. Nothing sexual though! Confinement: There's a few instances of characters being trapped in small-ish spaces. Death: Multiple deaths occur. Some are witnessed and some are talked about. Death of a parent:

Spoiler

Our main characters mom dies of illness. Her father gets shot by police trying to help her escape a situation. Many parents of the children taken to christmasland are killed but we mostly hear about it after the fact rather than witness it.

Fire/fire injury:

Spoiler

Our main character gets locked in a room and the building is set on fire. Another character gets sprayed with gasoline and set ablaze. Another character burns his hand on a tail pipe. The MC burns down her house at one point.

Gun Violence: Some people get shot. Injury/Violence: Many injuries and violence. They aren't described in excruciating detail. This isn't a splatterpunk. Kidnapping: Charlie Manx kidnaps kids to take to christmasland and kidnaps our protagonists son. Mental illness/gaslighting:

Spoiler

Our main character spends a lot of time in mental facilities because no one else can hear the dead kids from christmasland calling her on he phone and she struggles to understand if her "powers" are real or not.

Misogyny: Our villains, especially the gas mask man, don't respect women very much. Stalking:

Spoiler

The villains kill the neighbours so they can stalk the MC.

Self harm:

Spoiler

One characters power works best if she's experiencing pain so she burns herself with cigarettes.

Drugs/Alcohol:

Spoiler

Some discussion of drugs and homelessness. Our MC takes an oxy at one point. A kid is drunk at one point. The gasmask man drugs his victims and children.

Medical content: There's some discussion of an autopsy. Car Accident:

Spoiler

There's a car accident involving a character and a child at one point. There's also a motorcycle crash.

Blood: Moderate amount. Cursing: ome swearing but it's not every other word. Rape/Sexual Assault/Incest: This is more discussed than witnessed by the reader.

Spoiler

The gasmask man rapes the parents of kidnapped kids before he kills them. There's one upsetting part in which he tells another characters about forcing a dad to perform sexual acts on him. That part felt particularly upsetting. There's also an attempted rape of the MC but she outsmarts him. It is revealed early on that the gasmask man raped and killed his own mother.

Cancer: It's stated that someone died of cancer.

emilyspex's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

There were things about this book I loved and things that I hated. I loved the characters and the story, but the way the author writes really got to me. Why would a child hold another child "like a lover"? Why did he have Lou and Vic fall in love when he was 20 and she was 16? Why did the author include a racial slur in the middle of his book? Also, if I heard one more description of sweet, kind-hearted Lou as a fatty fat fat landwhale manatee fatso, I might have had a stroke. Honestly, I'm fine with having a character's fatness be an issue or struggle, but the author described this wonderful character as if he hated his guts.

There were long stretches where I enjoyed this book, but I would really struggle to recommend it to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Self harm, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Rape, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Murder, Racism, and Sexism

savanapavlak's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal death, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Gun violence

Moderate: Drug use, Abandonment, Child death, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Body horror

ripxw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Rape, and Child abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Animal death, and Terminal illness

ae_young's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Fatphobia, and Rape

Minor: Pedophilia

adriennne's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, and Self harm

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death of parent, and Blood

Minor: Domestic abuse and Fire/Fire injury

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

peppers_books's review against another edition

4.0

this book has one of the best lines i have ever read in a book, i will remember this for as long as i can:  "he was hideous-old, not to mention hideous. his great bald skull was a globe mapping an alien moon" i actually cackled out loud, and this gem happens on page four

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

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