Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Near the Bone by Christina Henry

34 reviews

skranz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Rape, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Miscarriage

mrsmollyh's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Pedophilia

darquedreamer's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Blood, Child abuse, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, and Rape

mandi_lea's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Gore, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Sexual violence

batcaves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Violence

viselik's review against another edition

This book needs a fucking content warning. I adored Christina Henry's Lost Boys and was super excited to see a horror/thriller... But I did not expect whatever the fuck this is. I am uncomfortable with the huge focus on Christianity in this book and the undertones of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Animal death, Violence, Domestic abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Vomit and Adult/minor relationship

elskabee's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.5

 This was a compelling horror novel where the horrors humans can inflict outweigh the horrors of an actual monster stalking our MC through the remote wilderness.

For me this book was not a comfortable read, but most of the things that happen to the MC are left vaguely described (most, not all). William's monstrosity still is more than clear and the MC's mental journey of starting to deconstruct everything she'd been brainwashed to believe as her memories come back is beautifully done. Being in Matty's head is incredible, she's smart and compassionate and finds an inner strength that made this story feel powerful rather than depressing.

I won't say this is a perfect book. As terrifying as the actual cryptid monster is, those looking for a creature horror will likely leave feeling unsatisfied. Although Matty is smart and careful, the strangers she meets make some stupid decisions that are kind of frustrating. But imo it was fairly tolerable because at least we still had Matty and their motivations for the decisions were understandable (but still stupid). The abruptness of the ending was very jarring for me as I felt that some things were left unresolved and I also just wish I could have known more about events afterwards.

Highly recommend, but definitely consider the triggers before picking up 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death, Animal death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Pedophilia, Murder, Miscarriage, and Rape

Minor: Confinement

additionally: brainwashing, religious abuse rape is not on page/described, but it is referenced fairly frequently

nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Confinement, Sexism, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, and Rape

nickoliver's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No

5.0

t only took me three days to finish this book, which some might not call a quick read, but for a horror novel with a heavy focus on domestic violence, my reluctance to stop was definitely surprising for me, personally. Usually, hard and graphic stories like this need to be digested in intervals and not all at once.

What made it such a page-turner for me was how atmospheric it was. The sheer idea alone of being stuck on a mountain with your very abusive husband was horrifying. Add to that the terror of knowing there was a monster out there that you couldn’t identify - and your husband’s insistence that it was his mission to kill it, therefore deliberately seeking it out and forcing you to do the same -, and you’ve got yourself a nightmare setting and scenario.

What was the bigger threat and monster in Mattie’s life? This big, scary creature out in the woods who kept brutally killing animals? Or the man in her house who beat and raped her daily and kept her chronically malnourished and weak? I loved the way Henry played with that thought, because it made you question who you should fear more.  In any other book, the answer would always clearly be the unknown, supernatural creature, but here, that wasn’t really the case. The snowy, cold season exacerbated Mattie's situation even more and turned the atmosphere even more nightmarish.

Admittedly, the domestic violence was a lot.  It wasn’t completely graphic, thankfully; especially the rape scenes were off-page, and a lot of the beatings were also only talked about before or afterwards. But William was extremely misogynistic and abusive - a religious nut job who picked and chose what he decided was a sin and what wasn’t.

(Music? A sin. Kidnapping a girl and murdering her mother? Totally okay. Putting a child in a box so that she was so traumatised she’d obey you forever? Definitely what God wanted.)

It was hard to read sometimes, so if that’s triggering for someone, that should be taken into account.

I loved that the story subverted my expectations a little. Once the three strangers appeared, I assumed there would be a tentative step to romance, just based on the way Griffin was talking and Henry wrote about him. So the way the plot progressed instead was brutal and shocking to me, but also kind of a nice surprise? It’s not like a romance would’ve fit well into the book, anyways.

I liked Mattie as a protagonist. Her trauma was portrayed very well and real. While I did think the way her memories came back was a bit too convenient at times, Henry focused a lot on the reasons behind how she managed to forget about things in the first place, and it was just very authentic. I also never got properly angry at the way she acted, because it made sense that she wouldn’t fight back in the way some readers would.

I also liked the three strangers a lot. They were developed quite nicely, and even though C.P. was sometimes thick in the head and dismissed Mattie’s very real and obvious trauma, some of his actions did make sense in retrospect. And he seemed pretty versatile - my feelings about him changed a lot, he was never static or all too predictable, which made sense in the stressful situations they were all in. The only gripe I had was the fact that he reacted to a quite gory scene very nonchalantly afterwards. It was a nightmare in the moment, but he got over it way too quickly. That didn’t feel very realistic.

Like I said, I read this pretty quickly and didn’t want to stop. It was very suspenseful! Especially the unexpected plot points - like

Griffin actually dying

- made it hard for me to put the book down. I just wanted to know how it ended.

Speaking of ending, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that. It was a bit too abrupt, and personally, I would’ve liked to see a bit further into Mattie’s future.

I would’ve liked to know if she was going to see her sister again and how the public reacted to her showing up again after eight years missing.

However, I do think it made more sense this way. Going from these 363 pages of nonstop suspense and creepy moments in the wildnerness to suddenly having scenes in the public would’ve been too much of a difference. 

Overall, this was an atmospheric, suspenseful horror book that asks the question what’s scarier - monster or man?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

Minor: Miscarriage

joy_ong's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Gun violence