Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

96 reviews

fencernick's review

dark hopeful informative mysterious sad tense slow-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: Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

lolaslalaland's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

Down at the end of Needless Street lives a peculiar man with his daughter and a cat, but strange things have been happening in and around the house. Strange things... 

Pros: 
✅ I was on the edge of my sea to the very end 
✅ twists I never expected 
✅ every character was unique and individual 
✅ all moments and details are important and come together 
✅ truly terrifying and disturbing 
✅a masterwork of perspectives 
Cons: 
❌ a bit of a slow and confusing beginning, I almost DNFed it but I am so glad I didn't! 

I feel like I cannot say much more about this book without revealing key details because it is just such a ride that cannot be spoiled. Highly highly recommend to all readers! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Self harm, Alcohol, and Murder

magnoliabloomfield's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I can’t remember what show or movie it was, but i clearly remember two people arguing about whether a lie could be a twist- ah thank you Google, it’s from Bobs Burgers Hamburger Dinner Theater episode. Anyway. It feels like we don’t get a twist so much as a lie when we read the book after reading the blurb. Is it interesting? Sure. Is it the nerve wracking thriller Stephen King said it was? No. Was he high? Doesn’t he do horror, it’s like his whole thing? Geez. 

Half the characters you’re promised in the blurb aren’t actually physically present in the story.

The plot twist is not what you’re expecting at all but not in a good way. 

The more I think back on it, the less it makes sense tbh, when you get to the end think back to the whole mall trip with Lauren where he went in the little girls fitting rooms and Lauren’s feet still worked. And him being the “dad” when you find out where and when she came from. 

By the end I really really really wished I’d read a story about “Mommy” instead, whatever she was doing and the “green boys” and her home country seemed waaaaaay more interesting than this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Torture

Snakes, snake bite.

cassie7e's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

So. Many. Layers!
Also now I need more suspense stories wirh the cat as a POV character!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Suicide, Grief, Drug use, Death of parent, Child death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Self harm, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Homophobia, Abandonment, and Murder

cardanrry's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Kidnapping, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Homophobia

jax00's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.75

It always had me guessing and I really enjoyed it. But it being about DID has me divided. Mental illness isn't a plot in horror, but he also wasn't made to be evil.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

kymzii's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Child abuse

sophiefreeman's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

An overall enjoyable book, the writing style is surprisingly poetic in places. I thought the quick succession of twists at the end was exciting, but I sort of wish they had been more evenly interspersed throughout the novel to develop them better. More psychological than a horror, I like that the author humanised all the characters and didn't play into outdated tropes about mental illness, instead it seems lovingly researched and portrayed. I also always appreciate a talking cat. Definitely a good book to read in autumn.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, and Animal cruelty

aardwyrm's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

It's fun to read, and the genre is full of works that are great atmosphere 90% of the way through and then don't stick the landing. If you just want spooky eeriness, it's not a bad choice. It's just ultimately got nothing it's actually about. The setup seems to promise a situation where lots of cliche genre stuff seems to be true, and then the big twist is all the cliche stuff is in fact true, just obfuscated. It's definitely going for twisty and intricate, but a twist and just changing the story partway through aren't really the same thing. Exactly the sort of book I think ought to have a warning sticker you can optionally peek under so you can know before you get invested if the supernatural is just a bad metaphor. When the big reveal is nothing interesting has really happened, then it's hard to care about what comes before. 

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Content Warnings

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

carolyn_baird_'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Alcohol, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Alcoholism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, and Death