Reviews tagging 'Grief'

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

17 reviews

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Drug use, Body horror, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Bullying, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Medical content, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Murder, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

m_lee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Vomit, Slavery, Torture, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Classism, Abandonment, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Violence, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Chronic illness, Cursing, Incest, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Pedophilia

bluejayreads's review against another edition

3.0

I have been dealing with some serious brain fog lately. This is the first book I’ve actually managed to finish in almost two weeks. It’s been hard to focus on reading anything, and that has definitely affected my reading experience. So there is a definite grain of salt to be added to the following opinions. 

This book went hard on the dark and disturbing Gothic vibes, leaning into the pleasure in pain, debauchery, and hedonism of a wealthy blood-drinking court. But that’s about all there is to this book – vibes. There’s nothing deeper or richer than that. 

The world is in general badly explained. Stuff like the political interactions of major and minor noble houses gets info-dumped, even though none of it matters and only one character from a house besides the House of Hunger is at all relevant. Stuff that actually was interesting and relevant to world-building and the overall atmosphere were completely glossed over. For example, a few sentences towards the beginning indicate that the north part of the world may be some sort of different realm or fae dimension that somehow connected to the ordinary world, but that is never explained or even confirmed. 

The biggest drawback was the characters had absolutely no motivation. They do things for no discernable reason and stop doing them for no discernable reason, and nobody seems to think that people could have reasons. Nobody has desires or reasons to act. Marion, the protagonist, states some motivations and desires, but she doesn’t act like she has any. At one point, she decides on a course of action because the plot said so and practically says as much. I can’t even call the characters flat because they have to have at least one dimension for that. Most of the characters were bland pretty girls in pretty dresses drifting through a gothic mansion at the whims of the author. 

This book is a strange reading experience because I 100% get what it’s going for. I intellectually know it’s going for a dark, creepy, gothic feeling, dripping with blood and sex and debauchery and hedonism. In my head I know that’s the picture that it’s trying to paint. But it stays in my head. There’s no feeling to it. The strange pacing probably helped with that, spending over half on setup that skipped over months at a time and then slamming directly to climax with hardly any middle to develop an actual story. Maybe it’s because of my brain fog, or maybe because the characters felt so lifeless. But it was all tell and no show. There were definite vibes, but no mood or atmosphere whatsoever. 

I think I finished reading this book because I wanted a dark and atmospheric gothic fantasy horror. I expected something rich, lush, and atmospheric, with blood and silk and sex and horror blending into a velvet tapestry of violent delights, and kept reading hoping it would show up eventually. But what I actually got was the LaCroix of gothic novels – hints of flavor enough to tell what it’s supposed to be, but nowhere close to real or satisfying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Terminal illness, Death, Confinement, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Drug use

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Animal death

booksthoughtsandtea's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

Amazing. My favorite type of horror. Quiet, atmosphereic, and absolutely terrifying. 

Be careful... All the trigger warnings. 

The main question in reading this book:

But is it canabalism?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Classism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Torture

Do NOT read if you are not okay with graphic descriptions of blood on every other page.

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Drug use, Death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, Dementia, Addiction, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Cannibalism, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Confinement, Self harm, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

book_of_the_north's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Incest, Torture, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Gore, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

theonlybaillie's review against another edition

It just wasn't doing it for me. It might be for someone, but it's not me unfortunately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Drug use, Violence, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Grief, Bullying, Death, Alcohol, Body horror, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent

Don't read this if you have a fear of needles or blood lol