Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

39 reviews

lycheejelly's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Incest, Infidelity, Infertility, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Trafficking

sentientnoodle's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A

1.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Miscarriage

The author pull the pick a type of horror trope so he wrote all of them, poorly, into this book

house_of_hannah's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow, where do I even start after that ? This book gets right into the story, and just does not stop ! This completely blew away my expectations, and is immediately going on my favorites list.

So this story is divided into seven parts, 135 chapters, and an epilogue. Yeah, I know. This means that the chapters are pretty short though, which really helps with the book not feeling as long as it is. My main fear going into it was that the story would be slow, or drag in the middle. It never dragged for me until the last 100 pages though, so I do wish the author had cut the story to be a little shorter.

it did feel like this could have ended at several different points. I had some moments where it felt like we were heading to the climax....but there were still 400+ pages left. It made me curious to see how this story could keep going without feeling bogged down, and it really surprised me how the stakes kept rising. I ended up really getting into the story, and binged the last 300 pages all today.

I had heard or read that this is a religious horror, but that doesn't really kick in until about half way through the book. I had actually thought I had been mistaken about that until I hit that point, but it ends up really pushing into it, so I'd stear clear if that type of horror isn't your thing.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that the adults are not complete idiots. I hate when a story makes the adults to be oblivious fools who can't see what's directly in front of them for the sake of the plot, so this book was a breath of fresh air. I also ended up liking the entire cast of characters even though there are a lot of them. The author does a fantastic job of humanizing them, so it's easy to connect with the town.

One thing that stood out to me, and I've noticed other reviewers have mentioned this as well, is that the children did not feel as if they were 7 years old. I often forgot that this is what their age was supposed to be, and imagined them as more 11-12 years old. Whenever their age was reiterated it just made me laugh, because there is just no way.

This story does get completely ridiculous, and sometimes it is laughably so. I pondered if I should lower the rating at all for that, but honestly I've enjoyed this book so much that I don't think I should. 

I adored coming up with theories for what was happening in this book. There were so many moments where I gasped at the end of a chapter, and then read what had happened to my husband. I think this is a fantastic horror novel that any fan of the genre should read !

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Suicide, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Car accident, Blood, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Addiction and Dementia

Minor: Abortion, Vomit, and Pregnancy

sunnysoprano's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Car accident, Gore, Blood, Child abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Medical content, Gun violence, and Dementia

kimdalia's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Moderate: Infidelity and Suicide

hollykat's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

mulletapologist's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I feel like this started off really strong, and then at some point around the 70% mark it really kind of lost me. I just wasn't a big fan of the direction it went, or some of the choices that were made. I will say, though, that the way that it ended really did bring it back around for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexual assault

nitny19's review

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

ravensandlace's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

 Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com

One of my favorite books, after Harry Potter, is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I have a quote from the book on my blog banner, that’s how much I love the book. The movie is even better. So when I heard that Chbosky released a new book, I knew I had to jump on that book. I am beyond glad I picked this up because it has become my new favorite. 

The whole book was just spooky and creepy. The entire time I was reading, I felt this vague uneasiness. The atmosphere was so sinister and I just knew that something was going to happen. I didn’t know when but I knew at some point, something was going to happen and I was going to be so scared. I actually was a little scared, which never happens in books. 

One of the main reasons I loved this book was because of Christopher, the MC. Even though he was 7 (seven), I related to him on a personal level. He wanted to be better at school, especially math and that broke my heart. I know what it feels like and reading about him struggling brought back a lot of emotions. I was really rooting for him even when he was making some less than good choices. 

This book has many POVs but I found that enhanced the story. Every character has a unique personality, that you’ll know pretty immediately who they are and how they pertain to the story. I fell in love with each and every character. Even the “villains”, I found I wanted them to be better.  

Overall, this book was so different from the Perks of Being a Wallflower and that’s a good thing. It means that Chbosky has the chops to do different genres and do them well. I can’t wait to see what he does next. It's the perfect spooky and sinister book for Halloween or really anytime, because spooky season is all year round in my world.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Sexual assault