Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

17 reviews

onironic's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The real horror of this book is the ignorance and stigma surrounding mental illness, and I loved that. It's 100% a horror novel, but not in the conventional way. The main and viewpoint character being an 8-year-old girl amps up the horror and tension, when the reader knows and understands far more of what's happening, but is stuck riding on the shoulder of a child who, understandably, doesn't know enough of what's going on to change what's happening or protect herself from any of it. You see all the failures of the adults around her and can understand exactly how it all gets so bad, and have to helplessly watch these children deal with it as best they can while knowing exactly where it's going.  This book doesn't hand any information to you whatsover, much less answers, but it will give you plenty of clues. I liked how many of the chapters jumped from meta-analysis to the future to the past. It gives context without derailing the story, all of it aiming at a terrible conclusion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Vomit, Murder, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content

Moderate: Self harm, Child abuse, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic relationship

lilarose'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Gore, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, and Blood

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Alcohol

karamelka_kar19's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

There were a lot of happy and crappy moments. First of all, the bad ones.

In the parts when the interview for the upcoming book was conducted, it was hard to keep up with two women speaking, the ages especially. The blog thing? A a waste of space. A little things, but still they're matter.

What angered me most was the amount of  POV, but not the possessed one. In this sense it is classic, right? They were witnesses, alright, but the story is not about them at all.This poor girl lived and suffered her parents and everyone else treating her like the way the did so we can hear how sad everyone around her is for her? Let the survivor tell their own story, god dammit.

That's to say, the book itself is aware of the situations, it's really clear it was the intention. 

The most solid part was the sister relationship between the two main characters. They deeply cared about each other and it was the most heartbreaking and beautiful thing I've ever seen. 

The book doesn't have a full "what happened" line straight, you always kept in a shadow of what's real and what's not. It reminded me of The cabin at the end of the world by the same author though I'm not saying that it's for the same group of people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Bullying

petrolfox's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Excrement, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Confinement, Bullying, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, and Homophobia

alicenonsense's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Having both a blog and child narrate your book might seem quirky and innovative but boy does it get old real fast.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Mental illness

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Blood, and Child death

Minor: Misogyny

ladysanctuary's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Violence, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, and Excrement

madarauchiha's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

 ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜  my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️

It was ok. I had some hopes for it but the premise didn't live up to how it played out. It was an interesting twist? I don't know why I'm saying that like a question. It does the thing where it tells you the twist and then explains it over the course of a few chapters. I don't think it wa a good plot twist to the whole possession thing. I feel like this plot could have been done better by someone else. 

It was pretty sad and grim in a realism sort of way. I don't think I felt tense or scared reading it at any point. The namedropping of other horror media in the book felt like the author going 'see? see? this is totally scary and in the same vein and stuff! Isn't this so cool?!!'

Oh, and if you're looking for straight up supernatural horror, look elsewhere.

content warnings:
minor: animal death, death, body horror, sexual content, abortion, misogyny, murder, poison, suicide attempt, 

medium: death, teeth trauma, gaslighting, poisoning, murder, parental death, smoking tobacco, genital trauma, dogs, alcohol abuse, self harm, h p lovecraft mention, peer abuse / bullying, injuries, bone fractures, gore, violence, 

major: religion catholicism, misogyny, death, bullying, peer abuse, gore, death threats, emotional abuse, vomit, emetophobia, sexual content, menstruation, blood, unsanitary, religious abuse, exorcisms, child abuse, homophobic f slur, hate groups, poisoning, familicide, 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Murder, Death of parent, Drug use, Alcoholism, Self harm, Bullying, Gore, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Sexual content, Abortion, Murder, Misogyny, and Suicide attempt