Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

70 reviews

birdieex's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

Mixed feelings on this book. I feel like this is going to be is difficult for me to rate. On one hand, I think I lacked the media literacy skills to understand a fair bit of the writing style, and ended up having to reread paragraphs. On the other hand, I can acknowledge it's a layered, psychologically complex story of obsession and violence.
 
I can see what the author was going for with the writing; something complicated and tangled and messy. However, there were many scenes I couldn't comprehend what was going on. I couldn't piece together where scenes started and ended or who was speaking when. I thought the

unreliable narrator

was done well. The ending threw me for a loop, honestly. That callback was so good.
 
There were a lot of times where characters knew something (or thought they knew something) I didn't and it was hard for me to connect to anyone. If the intention was to make us read between the lines, I had trouble doing that; and again this could come down to my own media illiteracy. I can't grasp the motive behind the killing. It was a thrill killing, but why? Why did they suddenly decide to do this?

I couldn't figure out if they even liked each other during some parts, which I get is the point. It's toxic and codependent, but I still found myself thinking "why the hell are you even together?" because I couldn't see anything that really brought them together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Car accident, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Cursing, Police brutality, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death

The sexual assault is a brief detail; however it is described and could be triggering. Details under the spoiler.

Julian explains that his prep school roommate would climb on top of him (fully clothed) when he thought he was asleep. Julian said he allowed it because "he was a little good-looking and I felt sorry that he didn't have any other friends.

eestellar's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

This book was interesting, but the writing was confusing sometimes. I couldn't figure out when scenes started and ended, and who was talking at points. I can genuinely say I wasn't expecting the ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Murder

Moderate: Suicide and Self harm

patriciapueyolopez's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death, Suicide, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Gore

Moderate: Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Classism

Minor: Stalking, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, and Classism

robin_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

5.0

A little disturbing but enjoyable. Very well thought out and well written story and characters who feel real. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide, Self harm, Death of parent, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

thisisthesun's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

Took me a minute to realise that this was based loosely on Leopold and Loeb. The characters were unlikeable, which in itself isn't a problem, but much of the book felt very empty to me. The middle of the book dragged and was just a bunch of annoying dialogue or toxic angst that didn't really add anything to the story in my opinion. Some areas are exquisitely written, but at the end of the day, I think this book would have benefitted from being about 100 pages shorter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Grief, Self harm, and Murder

paulawind's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

3.0

What the fuck was this book. Do I so severely lack media literacy skills or intercultural reference skills that most of this book left me thoroughly confused? Paul being a severely unreliable narrator also wasn’t helping to judge the actions and motivations behind them of any character but Pablo. In the end

we find out that Julian genuinely loved Pablo with his whole heart, all cruelty was just Paul’s interpretation, Julian desperately wanted Pablo to love him, even orchestrating murder with him

. Having said that I still don’t understand the motivations of characters by the end. They seemed to be taking 180 every chapter, are they in love, are they not, is Paul just self-loathing or is he actually criminally insane? Getting inside his head made me feel dirty. But then again this is a book, according to the author, about queer isolation and how we are still perceived as “the other”, which is only layered with other marginalisations. And I can see it in the book but there are still so many other points and themes the novel is touching on that leave me confused and they didn’t seemed to be resolved by the end. Or, as I said in the beginning, I just didn’t get it and the metaphors and symbolism was actually really straightforward and I’m just stupid. Which would be very valid, I think ever since exiting academia I am using brain cells at the exponential pace 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Eating disorder, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Violence, Murder, Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Classism, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

pastelbread's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Outing, Self harm, and Murder

Minor: Car accident and Panic attacks/disorders

jj_lg's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.25

reminiscent of Jude St. Francis (A Little Life); so interesting the contrast of where loneliness & isolation can lead a protagonist, as well as how it blurs the reliability of the narrator. reading from that kind of self-deprecating POV becomes tedious at times, but never pointless: the tension in the story builds on this foundation of the anti-hero's twisted inner monologue. the loathing you come to have for Paul heightens the angst we're to understand he feels inside him. the themes & recurring motifs of this book are all executed flawlessly;

the chess one in particular had my jaw on the floor upon reading the last page & reading back through to find its other occurrences to fully appreciate the genius of its inclusion.

as well as the lesser motif of animals & their contrast to humans

i had to cover up the last few pages of this book as i read it to savor my anticipation & avoid spoiling the conclusion  for myself too soon.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Self harm, and Violence

Minor: Homophobia

kittiesss's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Car accident

trulydevious's review against another edition

sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Animal death