Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Devil House by John Darnielle

13 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

---

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

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. 

---

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

jo_schmo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Minor: Forced institutionalization

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

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

loveallthis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Domestic abuse, Child death, Death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Mass/school shootings

elsebeok's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Blood

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, and Death

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

---

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

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

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

Incredibly dull and keeps jumping between 3 different stories

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Murder, Vomit, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Violence

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.