Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Devil House by John Darnielle

14 reviews

kthealey's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child death, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gore, Emotional abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Sexism, Vomit, and Xenophobia

alicroz34's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

Favourite line: Jesse has a fear of consequences whose constant presence at the periphery of his consciousness is a sort of tribute to his father. 

Well written! The first half or so really had me. Definitely not what I expected despite being warned it's not a horror book - but it's also not really a crime novel either in a way. It more... explores what crime media is without delivering on the crime aspect. The fourth time we were suddenly in the perspective of a peripheral character, later & later in the book, I really became impatient waiting for the answers that never caaaaame. This is the second book in the last year that has some almost fourth-wall-breaking commentary from the author on their own work. In the last few pages of the book, we read his account of a true crime novel that is not routed in fact, that has no momentum, and leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied. So, I know he knows he made that. But I still feel that way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse

jessiejonesbentley's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Not horror but not bad. Decent writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Blood, Child abuse, Sexual content, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Violence

yrioona's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Weighed down a bit by metanarrative, deliberate repetition, and high concept touches (really could've done without the barely-relevant medieval interlude in fake gothic font), and treading some overly familiar ground as far as JD's themes and settings, but still really compelling and complex. It has a skillfully done puzzle-box/labyrinth structure that leads you through without spelling things out too much, teasing a straightforward narrative about troubled teens resorting to violence, but then gradually zooming out to reveal  
a kind of class-conscious existential horror story about what happens when you apply compassion and imagination to the true crime genre. I picked this up because I'm a mountain goats fan and WIWV was pretty ok, but this is a huge step up from WIWV and it made me look forward to what's next. Pretty incredible what this guy can do! Wish he would write some more interesting women characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

criticalgayze's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Merriam-Webster defines stewardship as "the conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially : the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care."

Sorry to start this off like an essay, but it's what a book like this deserves.

Stewardship is really what is at the heart of a book. What does it mean to take care of something? A child, a piece of land, (maybe most especially) a story? Even more specifically, a story you have not been trusted to tell but rather named yourself the teller of.

Throughout the book, Gage Chandler wrestles with this moral quandary. How do you tend to something that may or may not be considered "yours?" Is there a healthy way to do such a thing, or is there only the best way you know how? Are you allowed to do such a thing, and once you've made the choice to do it anyway, what is the best way to validate or redeem your choice?

This book is art. The book is beautiful the whole way throughout, but when Darnielle inverts the reader's understanding in the last 15 pages, it becomes elevated to the realm of the truly spectacular.

Do yourself a favor and read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Blood, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse

kleinekita's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Honestly just left me really confused. There were parts I liked quite a bit and parts a had to push myself through. Overall I don't know what it all added up to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Alcoholism and Forced institutionalization

mzynda's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse

zw_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

cviii's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Vomit, Blood, Murder, Body horror, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Homophobia

dustghosts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.5

 Overall, a very ambitious undertaking both in terms of craft and content. Darnielle poses and ruminates on questions that criticize the true crime genre— cutting but careful, well-balanced but appropriately weighty for what we’re actually talking about. Who owns a story? How does community tragedy transform itself into urban myth?   Who gets to decide what version of the truth to tell, and are there times when it’s better untold? Questions and answers are posed not only towards true crime, but also towards restorative justice on a broader scale, and in the end this book is frustratingly compassionate towards many different actors in the many different stories herein.

As many reviewers have said, this is not a horror book and marketing it as such is a misstep! What it is, though, is a pretty impressive work of craft that digs its heels in as Darnielle plays with timelines, and interlocking stories, and points of view, and— and, and. Absolutely, some of these experiments are less successful than others, but thinking about the story as a work in fragments thrown into a cardboard box… Form and function are pretty beautifully combined here. 

My primary critique is that there were sections in the middle that really did feel like they dragged, and the pacing was a bit meandering at times. In the end, it felt juuust a little too long, and I could see why others had trouble finishing. Still, really worth the engagement if you are a critic or an enjoyer of true crime, and maybe especially if you’re a nonfiction reader looking to sink your teeth into some fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse