Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

16 reviews

themaddbeanie's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

0.5

Readers will be like, "What a crazy twist!" when the author lies to you for 250 pages and then decides to tell you the truth at the end.
Yeah, someone's mental illness is not your horror story. You can't just steal a real disorder and turn it into a "freak show" for others to gawk at. Disrespectful

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Abandonment, Child abuse, Grief, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Medical content, Confinement, Death, Animal cruelty, Child death, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Body horror, and Vomit

I feel like this could potentially be very upsetting for people with certain mental illnesses or those who have experienced abuse.

kjm_x's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Physical abuse

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

unphilosophize's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

1.0

 I did not enjoy this book. The story felt disjointed and like the author changed their mind what the book was about halfway through writing. One of the main characters was also severely undeveloped. The plot was fairly predictable.

I will never like a book that uses mental illness as a plot point.

A lot of folks talked about how they liked the afterward, and while I agree that it was an important thing to add it was poorly executed. I did not feel that her explanation really did justice to the diagnosis that she chose to exploit in her book, nor did it really talk about the controversy around that diagnosis in a good way.

Overall extremely disappointing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, and Kidnapping

elliotvanz's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

1.5

Imagine taking Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, or Faulkner's Sound and the Fury, and sticking them in a blender with Stephen King and Gillian Flynn. This book takes the unreliable narrator to new heights and distorts reality into a pretzel. The pacing flies along, and feels akin to chasing someone through very dark woods with a dim flashlight, the plot revealed in snatches of perfect clarity in between long heart-stopping moments of blindness. A character study, as well as a suspense novel, Ward uses language to tease her readers along the path all the way to the twisty conclusion. If you're a fan of thrillers this one will not disappoint.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child death, and Torture

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Self harm

sorcha_rosa's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

I found this impossible to rate because of it's subject matter. I understood what she was trying to do with this story, but I'm not sure this was the best way to do it? I would be interested in what own-voices reviewers would have to say about this one.

I think this needs to be written by someone with DID, or an own-voices perspective. I understand that she was trying to use our own biases against us and show us that this main character was actually not a murderer but in fact the victim. However, I'm not sure that that was the best way to show us a character with DID. It came across as someone being like, 'oh yeah, they're not a psychopathic murderer, they just have DID.' which might not be the best representation, even if they have this redeemable arch at the end? I don't know, I need to hear someone own-voices reviewers as I said. As someone who is neurodiveregent though, I wouldn't want this type of story written about me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Stalking