Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

63 reviews

morganpearcy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

0.5

I am a horror fan. I hated this book pretty much from start to finish. It is very obvious that the author is attempting throw in a lot of big, scary, challenging and shocking topics to make the book seem complex and dark - but that’s all a mask for 1 and 2 dimensional characters and an author who lacks the imagination and lived experience to give the story any real depth. It was as if the author watched some Law and Order Special Victims Unit episodes and decided one night to sit down and write what is, in essence, a toxic cishet masc hero fantasy - in response. There’s a lot of potential in the overall theme and plot but it just never reached any sort of maturity and completely missed the mark.

Let me explain. 

Things I enjoyed about the book: 

• There’s an unexpected twist.
• It’s a quick read.
• The scene where Anna yanks on Jude’s beard when he asks a dumbass question about why she thought beards were a liability in a fight.
• There’s an attempt (albeit inadequate) at a feel-good ending. 

Things I hated about the book:

• The ‘torture’ psychological, physical, etc was unimaginative, lacked creativity and was too phallic. Stop regurgitating TV show tropes and give us something real from your own darkness, dear author! 
• From page 10, I was rooting for the ghost and was thinking it would be a nice story to read where the universe can meet out some justice. I was looking forward to Jude’s death with some serious bloodlust. But no - about 2/3 of the way through there’s a twist and guess what?
  BOTH the ghost and the main character are, you guessed it - toxic freaking cishet men. There IS no one to root for.
  The women characters are woefully underdeveloped with zero personalities and I couldn’t root for any of them, either. This isn’t an antihero situation. The author is simply completely inadequate in attempting to make Jude a whole character. Read on for an explanation cuz I promised myself some bullet points.
• The main character is underdeveloped and there are a lot of distracting incongruencias.
  We jump from the intro of Jude as an eccentric musician with a flair for the macabre to Jude as caring but detached lover of barely-adult women to Jude as victim of childhood abuse to Jude as a dog lover who treats his pack like royalty, then back to Jude smashing piglets’ heads against the cement or shooting them with guns to live out a fantasy of patricide and focusing on how the pig’s heads sounded “like watermelons being smashed,” to defender of sexually abused women?! Then to man who would let their royal doggies be in pain in the back seat after having their legs smashed??
  None of this did anything to develop the character. You can’t include those kinds of details without some development. Yet, the author wanted to see what stuck and threw everything at the wall when it came to Jude.
• It’s not the point of the book, but the author simply doesn’t have the emotional scope, maturity or lived experience to write women SA survivors with any sort of depth or believability. Enough so that it’s distracting.
  Like when Jude beats up Mary Beth’s childhood sexual abuser and Mary Beth comes back to the car and becomes physically affectionate with Jude right off the bat. I can’t speak for every SA Survivor - but I am a Survivor myself. All of the women in my life are SA Survivors excepting ONE. And I have NEVER seen that response from an actual survivor upon seeing their abuser. Especially for someone so young, who hasn’t gotten help. That response wasn’t realistic. It simply played into Jude’s toxic masc hero fantasy and what the author obviously thinks people WANT to see. When in reality it was so distractingly incongruous it made me want to plot the author’s actual murder.
  It was as if the author, recent to writing the book, had a woman or woman-aligning person in his life reveal that they’re an SA Survivor, he fantasized about his response in his head and then had to find a place to slap that into a story somewhere cuz he’s justice-impotent.
• Again, the portrayal of women in general really exposes this author’s own implicit bias. I sincerely hope he doesn’t have a daughter. I don’t want to google it and find out. I’ll just hold on to hope.
• The ending was lackluster. Really,
  both Jude and the ghost should have died. Terrible, awful deaths. The only satisfying ending would have been Mary Beth riding off into the sunset, free of Jude and at peace with her freedom and ready to get some life experience so she doesn’t make the same mistakes shacking up with toxic cishet men again.

In the end, this would have been much better as a short story culminating in several bloody deaths across the board. This was NOT a satisfying read. It wasn’t triggering. It wasn’t disturbing. It was like reading a teenage boy’s post-SVU fantasy stretched thin like butter scraped over too much bread. Go elsewhere for your horror fix. This ain’t it. .5⭐️ for potential that was never realized. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

wemedge's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, and Murder

barmyjen's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

katkinslee's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

larkken's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

river_severn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark sad 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

3.5

This book really isn't what I thought it'd be. I didn't find it scary but I did find it reasonably stressful. It's essentially about a man who becomes haunted by a ghost and sets out to uncover the truth about the haunting and find a way to free himself of it. There's some really excellent character development and I do like the story unfolded in a way I didn't expect. The story had a medium pace. I think it would have been better if it was either a fast paced thriller or if it was more of a slow burn horror that built a sense of dread. The second half of the book is better than the first!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, and Sexual assault

There are two graphic dog deaths in which injuries are fairly detailed. The antagonist in the book tries many times to make the protagonists kill themselves or eachother via hypnosis. It's also revealed later that he used hypnosis on his stepdaughter so she wouldn't remember him sexually assaulting her. Sexual assault of minors is another theme throughout the book although it's not described in detail.

boundforinfinity's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Rock meets Stephen king/Shirley Jackson and creates this stunning story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

monstersinspace's review against another edition

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Gaslighting

dreamdoughnut's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Gore, Suicide, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Body horror, Drug use, Incest, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Car accident