Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons

13 reviews

xenomorph's review

dark sad 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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal death, Child death, Murder, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

Moderate: Antisemitism, Racism, Homophobia, and Classism

Minor: War

woweewhoa's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Ableism, Miscarriage, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Gun violence, Animal death, Alcohol, Racism, Child abuse, Child death, and Excrement

Minor: Abortion, Fatphobia, War, and Incest

writeyourselfclean's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.5

I struggled to get through this one. I actually think Siddons has a lot of writing talent, but I found the characters so out-of-touch that it was impossible to empathize or relate to the "horror" of their circumstances. Colquitt and Walter Kennedy are "middle class" and "comfortable" yet live on acreage in Atlanta, have a den, their own offices, a guest bedroom. They can work from home, take drivable flights down South, and spend weeks on the beach doing nothing at all. They are living in extreme wealth and frankly, I just don't care about their problems or how "normal" they are. They are annoying, invasive, conceited, and consumerism-driven people who think they know best, and not in a way that I found intriguing. I guess this book just hit a nerve with me (and maybe that makes it better than my rating suggests) but my biggest pet peeve in books is unaware privilege. And this book has it in spades. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage and Violence

blackthorne754's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Miscarriage, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Antisemitism, Racism, Ableism, and Homophobia

elizabethsureau's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage and Misogyny

Minor: Racial slurs

readinginmtl's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, and Suicide

jillaay_h's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Animal death, and Murder

saltedsnail's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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 death, Suicide, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Animal cruelty, Murder, Animal death, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Antisemitism, Racism, Classism, Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Gore

Minor: Infidelity, War, and Abortion

savvylit's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The House Next Door is an excellent example of a Southern Gothic horror novel. Siddons expertly builds mounting dread around the House as multiple well-to-do families face ruin over inexplicable occurrences. Though the house is not what one would typically think of as "haunted" - being both new and stylistically modern - it is practically alive with malice.

Where the genius of this book really lies, is in the subtle and scathing satire of Southern suburbia. Colquitt, Walter, and all of their bourgeoisie neighbors are obsessed with social standing and etiquette. The evil House inherently understands that and preys on everyone involved by specifically and absolutely destroying their reputations. The house forces them into such suburban scandals as infidelity, general impropriety, mental illness, and grisly death. Siddons wrote this novel in the late 70s and it is clear from the first page that these characters live in a world where anyone will be blatantly shamed or shunned for anything even slightly out of the norm.

I absolutely loved the themes and the lush writing style of The House Next Door. This book has joined The Elementals and The Haunting of Hill House as one of my favorite horror stories of all time.

That being said, because of the era this book was written and set in - and because all the characters are super annoying upper middle-class Southerners - this book features a handful of racism, sexism, a hell of a lot of classism, homophobia, and antisemitism. In the context of satire and loving to hate all the characters, it fits. Because it really is horrifying! However, that doesn't make it any less jarring for me to read in 2022.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Classism, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Animal death, Miscarriage, Ableism, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Suicide, Murder, Gun violence, and Excrement

jeathhp's review against another edition

dark medium-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? N/A

4.5

This is a slow-building psychological horror; a brain worm. Even though the main characters were not particularly appealing to me, I had to keep going, had to know what would happen next, had to get to the end. This is a fairly dark and uncomfortable story, so much so that I dreamed about it last night; my brain is still trying to put it somewhere and lay it to bed, but it won't rest. I really liked it even though the explanation doesn't quite hang together for me, but the overall book is quite chilling. Well plotted and enjoyed the writing style.  Trigger warnings for violence, miscarriage, animal death, infidelity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, and Miscarriage