Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Nosferatu by Joe Hill

44 reviews

fireweed15's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

 Christmas is my favorite time of the year, and I'm slowly learning to love horror reading, so the combination that is reading NOS4A2 was probably the natural result of that pairing. I loved this! The characters of this story are phenomenal. Hill does a wonderful job crawling around in the characters' heads and giving them depth. Vic is a fascinating, flawed protagonist, and Manx is a charming, terrifying villain. Even the secondary antagonist, Bing Partridge, was interesting, almost childlike, which made his role as "the Gasmask Man" and his horrific acts of service to Manx all the more unsettling. The plot itself builds on a low-medium pace, but when it picks up, it quickly becomes one hell of a page turner.

This book is not for the faint of heart with regards to the triggers (big ones for kidnapping, violence / murder and one animal death halfway through the book; references to rape / sexual assault and child abuse), but it's definitely worth a read, especially if you find a good creepy Christmas music playlist for ambience. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, and Sexual violence

lbracs's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

If you asked me what I thought of this book or what rating it would receive for the first 60%, I probs would have given it 2 stars - not because it’s bad, just because I wasn’t into it. But once the plot got real good about 2/3 in I definitely got more invested and more ravenously read the back half. It was a pretty disturbing and graphic book in parts, definitely didn’t pull punches and sometimes it felt gratuitous, but I don’t know. Won’t be a repeat read, but I’m ok that I read it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

skyhuckelberry's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Addiction and Animal death

aposthuma's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is SO GOOD. It has everything: romance, coming of age, fantasy elements, and a whole lot of pure horror. It starts strong and the pace just doesn't let up, culminating in a wonderfully satisfying ending. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

Second book of the year written by someone from the King family! 

I really enjoyed this more than I expected. I went in thinking it would be more ‘vampirey’, if that makes sense, but i guess the Nosferatu mentions are more metaphorical than literal. 

I found this really easy to get lost in, the story was interesting and the writing was really descriptive and painted a great picture of the world it takes place in. 

There are a few trigger warnings i would look out for if you’re going to read this and are sensitive to certain topics.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

horrorgami's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

I've been putting this book on hold ever since i got it back in 2014 as a gift, and I'm so upset it took me this long (basically 10 years) to finally finish this book. It was such a whirlwind of a book, and I easily got attached to not only Victoria "the Brat" McQueen, but her parents (Linda and Chris), her unlikely librarian friend (Maggie), and the father of her child (Lou Carmody). Each character had there own thing about them that made them loveable, despite their obvious flaws. They were written so much like an every day human you interact with, that you realize that its okay to have flaws, were all human, and mistakes are okay and you can learn from them and grow past them. 

A horror novel set in Christmas was something I never thought would bring any genuine fear or fright, but Mr. Hill did a very good job in making that the case. There were moments where I was scared, moments I wanted to cry, moments I did outright cry, and moments where I was able to applaud and cheer for Vic and her accomplishments. 

Even the antagonist, Charlie Manx, was a well written character - he was bone chilling and there were times that I really didn't know what he planned to do next. Usually in horror novels, once you get a few hundred pages in, you can tell what a person will do next - they become predictable to a sense. This is not the case with Charlie Manx at all. If he were a real life person standing in front of me, he would be someone I would be afraid of, and would hope to be able to run the other way, unscathed. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Rape, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

priscillarobock's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

judassilver's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.25

This book would have greatly benefited from condensing and trimming of the length. It drags, and the parts I feel are unnecessary really drag down the parts I do like in this book. It's somehow both too edgy and too cheesy? Overly long but also somehow underdeveloped/explored

(they don't even get to Christmasland until 90% in and then Vic dies off page!)

? I liked our cast of heros, but there is so much build up that the ending feels underwhelming and the part

about the ornaments felt especially cheap.

Overall the book came off as very crude-- certain metaphors and instances describing child and female characters were especially off-putting to me. And that's not even to mention the gratuitous fat phobia and off-hand racist remarks by various characters (and the narrator) that I don't really feel benefited the narrative. I would recommend the audio book if for nothing else than the benefit of being able to 2.5x speed listen to it, but I would caution to definitely check trigger warnings. Also note that this book is not about vampires. This book came highly recommended, so I'm sad this one just wasn't for me. 
Specific spoilers for those curious:

Random n-slur and k-slur drop in one line, the dog does die--brutally. There are also a lot of descriptions of penises (and synonyms, in varying levels of ridiculous!) and their various actions. The MC gets back into good terms with her abusive father at the end, and one character is excessively, I mean everytime he's in a scene, described as fat until he gets weight loss surgery at the end of the book. Also a few unfortunate Harry Potter refs

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Antisemitism, and Islamophobia

katiearcher's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-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

5.0

First five star read of 2024!

This book was an emotional rollercoaster. Did it need to be 984 pages? No! Did I love it anyway? Yes! Despite the intimidating length of the book and some particularly (gratuitous at times) graphic moments, I loved this book.

When I first started the book I questioned how much I was really going to care about Vic “the Brat” McQueen. But by the end I didn’t want to say goodbye to her and her family. Hill does a good job building the heros and the villains of this story. While I have no sympathy for the sadistic villains in NOS4A2 they are more complex than your average vampire villain.

If the length of the book intimidates you, I highly recommend the audio book as well which is narrated by Kate Mulgrew!

I highly recommend checking TW for this book as there are a lot of upsetting and disturbing topics covered.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pedophilia

locke_reads's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Islamophobia, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Vomit