Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

93 reviews

graff_fuller's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This is not my favourite genre. This one dipped a little too much for me into the Horror genre. There were points in this novel that I almost set it down and walked away.

It is me. I just don't like this type of story.

I don't mind a little dark, especially in a Thriller, but there were moments in this story that right and truly made me uncomfortable. That was its intent, so no hate on this book, it just wasn't for me.

My wife loved it. BUT, then again...her favourite genre is Horror and she knows what I like/dislike. She knew that there was going to be some things that triggered me (so she told me to look out for them...which I am grateful for).

I survived and finished the book. I call it a win for me. Phew. Now I need something to wash the stick of this story off of me...quickly. Ugh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Torture

briannas_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

rfreebern's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

This book is hard to talk about without spoiling it. Very worth a read.

ophielouise's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

book of the year, probably.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

mommarex1221's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

At 25%, I considered DNFing... but I stuck it out. Halfway through, I was finally starting to come around. Pieces of the story were falling into place and the more of the picture I saw the more and more I was blown away. If there's anything that intrigues you about this, please read on. I promise the pay off is worth it. 
I knew from the first few chapters that what Ward had created was masterfully written, even if I questioned what exactly it was that I was reading. This book will stick with me. 
Triggers galore. Explore at your own risk, some may be considered spoilers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

tati_jurisic's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Stalking, and Gaslighting

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I'm going to be honest, by the time I was about halfway through this, I was irritated and thought I would hate it by the end. I've maybe never had a book so suddenly change my thoughts on it as this one.

The blurb is very correct. Initially, you think you know what's going on here. Then a couple more times you maybe shift that around some and have an AH-HA! moment, and you think about the blurb, and you tell yourself oh boy they almost got me there. And that's when it changes on you again and you realize you did not in fact have a clue.

It was the second or third little shift that made me think I'd hate this. I had a terrible feeling it was going in a direction that was shocking for the sake of being shocking, and for whatever reason it made me angry. I'm not sure why, because this book is very well written, well fleshed out, with really lifelike characters for the most part. I guess maybe that was the issue, I couldn't reconcile why in the middle of all that, suddenly it would be taking a hard left turn into shock territory somewhat unnecessarily.

I'm happy to say that didn't happen, and I was shook by the time I realized what was really going on and how things linked together, in ways I was completely misled from considering. Color me surprised.

This book is so much more than I thought it was at that point, and it's completely different than what I expected at any point other than the very end. Definitely looking forward to Sundial now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

libraryofdoe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

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

5.0

How to talk about this book without spoilers? What I can say is it’s absolutely fantastic, harrowing and packs a heavy punch.

The premise is that a woman moves to a street where the man who she believes abducted her younger sister 11 years ago lives. The novel is both about that and absolutely not about that (I know, frustrating when you’re trying to decide whether to read it). I definitely advise reading the trigger warnings and going in somewhat prepared. If you like mental health rep, unreliable narrators and horror that makes you think, this is for you.

I need to reread this ASAP, knowing what was going on, so that I can pick out the inner and outer world parts. I will also be looking for reviews from people with DID to see how well the novel portrays it, as while I have a trauma-based dissociative disorder and have engaged previously with a lot of the content listed in the bibliography, I don’t have any form of DID and I therefore can’t speak on the representation. To me, it was fantastic and so, so sad. Amazing to see a novel use characters with these disorders and not have them be a villain. I feel this book really encourages the reader to question their worldview and view on mental health, and the afterword has me sobbing even now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia

mgordon3118's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Blood, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

archaicrobin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

I didn’t know much about this one going into it, just that it was on the Goodreads 2021 horror list and that people were loving it.  I thought it was a haunted house story and it definitely was not that, but I still enjoyed it greatly! I don’t want to say much about it because this is one of those books where the twist is slowly revealed as you go, so you don’t want to know much. 

Because the narrative is so chaotic it was a hard one for me to get into, but once I got a groove going I wanted to keep reading so everything would finally be explained! 

This book does deal with child severe child abuse and severe mental illness, so if that is triggering or upsetting I’d say take that in to consideration before picking it up. With that in mind however, I felt like the author did an excellent job portraying and researching the particular mental illness discussed in the book and she even has a bibliography at the end listing all her resources. I’ve read so many books where mental illness is misrepresented or thrown in as a horror trope for shock value, and it was refreshing to see Catriona Ward show respect and care with this concept. 

I enjoyed this one a lot but it wasn’t quite a 5 star for me. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into thrillers that toe the horror line!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Medical content, and Death of parent