Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Nosferatu by Joe Hill

60 reviews

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.

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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. 

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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

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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

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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.

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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

abbeyreads13's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.0

Check content warnings. Campy and goofy but very disturbing and depraved at times. Not for everyone !

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

boats's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

This book really hit for me. It was a bit long but there's nothing I'd cut easily. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Medical content, Car accident, and Death of parent

dozyfirbolg's review against another edition

3.75

I think my problem, or maybe it's not a problem, but I wanted to like this more then I did. At times Joe Hill is a brilliant writer with this wild and beautiful and messed up idea for his book. but at others it simply doesn't. Deliver. like he doesn't have the experience to do what he set out to do. the ideas here are solid, and he has some good lines but I think at time it just falls short. 
pair this with Joe hills ability to make questionable choices In his writing regarding certain characters - Lou chief among them, and how his fatness is used as a plot device, and the way in which he writes Bing and expands on Bings thoughts that left a bad taste in my mouth. 
Do not get me wrong, I knew what I was signing up for here, I read horror a lot but there's a lack of finesse and care to this book that distracts from what he was trying to accomplish here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Pedophilia

pbandjane_library's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use and Mental illness

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

itsyogirl's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pedophilia