Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

205 reviews

veelaughtland'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Torture, Death, Physical abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Blood, Alcohol, Suicide, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death of parent

apollo0325's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Just finished but going to come back to this review and maybe adjust star ratings (currently a 3)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Blood, Child death, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism and Medical content

There are a lot of potentially triggering material

including the description of a hanging (suicide), injury/burn descriptions, child abuse, starvation, death, death of a child (dead child's body described), and as a MAJOR PLOT POINT, dissociative identity disorder (I do not have DID so I cannot speak to the authenticity of it - the author's afterword describes her research on DID).

If you're afraid of snakes, one of the narrators has a severe fear of snakes and will constantly describe snakes.

runefactories's review

dark mysterious 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Child death, Animal death, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Hate crime and Homophobia

nicesideburns's review

mysterious 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

3.0

The 3 is a nice gesture but overall im disappointed with the book. 

If you need to rely on DID to add to your horror/thriller as a non DID haver then the story is null. There are parts where it even romanticizes the concept of DID. It was uncomfortable to read. It was obvious that author was infatuated with this disorder despite interviewing DID havers. It feels like this whole novel wasn't ran through them and labeled as a gift for the community.

Upsetting this has literally been broadcasted as a horror/thriller disturbing novel on booktok and reviews despite it being said its "not"

Literally everything fell apart when things pointed to this fact. Had DID been removed this would've been more promising. Im thoroughly disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Animal death, Child death, Blood, and Confinement

theublein's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book was super confusing and chaotic to follow until the end when everything was tied up very neatly. I typically can see twists of a mystery coming but this story had me guessing till the very end

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Torture, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Grief, Physical abuse, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty

rabidmerk's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Minor: Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, and Death

zeldazonks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

It got to a certain point when I was listening to this, that I thought I had it figured out but I was still curious enough to finish and see how everything played out. Well, more fool me, because this book took me completely by surprise on 2 or 3 occasions. Towards the end it was quite tough to get through, so check trigger warnings.

I will also say that I'm not 100% convinced about the mental health representation/portrayal in this. While in the afterword the author does clarify more about the disorder and the research they did into it, the fact of the matter is that you are led to believe a very specific narrative about Ted through most of the novel and while the book does catch you off guard, and challenge the preconceived notions you have about predators and good vs bad people, I just don't think the book carries it off well enough to completely avoid perpetuating stereotypes or harm. This was interesting and quite unique, but I think it almost undermines it's own point in how obviously you're walked down the garden path for the majority of the book. I respect the bold choices - the pov of a cat for example, and

I think I'll be mulling over this one for a little bit, but I don't know that it managed to fully pull off what it was trying to do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Child death, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Animal death, Torture, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Death, Confinement, and Blood

bxnnny's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

this is quite the sleeper hit. a bit of a slower start, somewhat hard to get into, but once you're in it, you can't stop. everything coming together piece by piece by the end is truly enthralling. every detail matters so pay attention! definitely go into it as blind as you can. heavy content warning with this one though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Addiction, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Stalking

pretty heavy content warning.

mental disorders a main theme.

xkwright's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Medical trauma, Child death, Alcohol, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

ink_fiction's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

A re-read of this book as I wanted to listen to the audiobook after reading it physically a couple of years ago. 

I have no description of the plot for this one because as many others have said, you really should just go in completely blind. I will say experiencing this book for a second time was truly amazing, knowing the ending and being able to pick up on the exquisite detail placed throughout is something that I really enjoyed. I have to to give the biggest praise as well to Christopher Ragland for the performance of the audio book - he truly brings this story to life as it’s hard to remember that all narration is by just one person. 

This book is not really a horror, it’s a story that subverts the tropes you expect, and at its core it’s about survival. A truly beautiful piece of work that will always be one of my favourite books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Animal cruelty