Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Devil House by John Darnielle

16 reviews

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

vixenreader's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-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? Yes

3.0

This novel reads more like a textbook than anything. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Classism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, and Mental illness

Minor: Bullying and Physical abuse

This novel delves into the subjects of poverty and there is a murder that involves chopping up an entire body into small pieces after committing murder in self defence.

felofhe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Gore, and Mental illness

Moderate: Drug use

davidrb's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

5.0

Probably not that good, but it means the world to me. I think maybe it got written for me to read right now.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

columbo's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Vomit

eemilycolleen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

ohhhhhh JD, you massive motherfucker, you've done it again my boy. it's about what we owe each other when there's nothing left but the owing; it's about how much things matter when you are a teenager and how they keep mattering long long after; it's about the absolute suffering and tragedy of friendship; it's about what we remember, and what we forget. also it's about castle doctrine.

ALSO just! the playfulness and sophistication of the form, UGH, that's john for ya. the symmetrical structure! the middle section! the final section! i am smirking and also my wee heart hurts. loved LOVED this.

- I know, that's how it is with everybody, the idea that people might need to be protected from the facts of a case, it runs counter to what we're taught, you know, but I had Jana Perez's letter right there in front of me, like an air raid siren sounding the alarm, it matters which story you tell, it matters whose story you tell, it matters what people think even if it doesn't matter to the people who needed it before the disaster hit. That's the thing, those of us on this side of the disaster, we get so dazzled by the fireworks, by the conflagration I want to say, that we don't see the gigantic expanse over there on the other side of the flames, but, you know. People have to live there. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse