Reviews tagging 'Child death'

La casa de hojas by Mark Z. Danielewski

33 reviews

rgraham's review against another edition

One of the main characters rapes and kills a woman.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Murder, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Death, and Child death

booitsnathalie's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

I can't stop thinking about what a nightmare this book must have been to design and print. I'm not sure any book will ever give me the sort of awe and revulsion I felt seeing a sentence span across the spine over two pages. It's obscene.

I didn't know much about House of Leaves beyond it's infamous typography, so it was surprising to learn it's functionally a book equivalent to found footage horror. It trades documentary "authenticity" for dense citations and pervert French, but conceptually I find a lot of similarities (both are primarily interested in the mechanics of their medium and how our trust in those forms can be exploited). How successful HoL is depends mostly on your willingness to indulge its most excessive elements, following footnotes to smaller footnotes and spinning the book around like it's the world thickest centerfold.

HoL slots into a weird segment of media that I conceptually appreciate but dread existing because it inevitably gets attached to the worst sort of gross art bro. It is a playful, surprisingly warm, darkly funny book, but also one that revels in masculine violence and the deification of male ambition. It is proud of its swamp, fascinated by the algae and mutated fish, but if you want to study the tadpoles you're forced to wade past crocodiles and a CW list longer than the terms you didn't read.

My metaphors are mixing and my mind is wandering, but this is all to say HoL is a challenging recommendation in 2022. A rewarding one if you can stomach the grime, but I wouldn't shame anyone for keeping it on the shelf a while longer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Confinement, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Drug use

Minor: Child death and Bullying

nozoh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

I still can't fully wrap my head around it, but it has been the most interesting reading experience I've had. It wasn't scary to me but definitely unsettling. Unexpectedly I was moved to tears at some points too! Even after finishing it I spent an hour or so going back to certain pages and appendixes to confirm things and coming to new realizations, and that's pretty special. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Addiction, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Sexism, Alcoholism, Gun violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Death of parent, Cursing, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Ableism, and Child death

woweewhoa's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Body horror, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Ableism, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Suicide, Vomit, Physical abuse, Rape, Car accident, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Homophobia and Cancer

sonnygrey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Violence, Death, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Sexism, Child abuse, Addiction, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Infidelity, Rape, War, and Child death

cappuccino136's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense

• 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

5.0

This book is dark, tragic, immersive (if you let it), unsettling. So creepy. Atmospheric. It is also super pretentious. The descriptive writing style and the visual formatting put you in the experience. Overwhelm you with information. My strategy for the info overload was to dump it into a journal. My anxiety was that I would forget something or not notice it. Get hopelessly lost. In the act of journaling to relieve my brain, I shared the experience of Zampano and Johnny as they compulsively wrote and edited this into some sort of shape. I think the final shape will be different for each reader. This is an intricate maze to get lost in and there is not a solution at the end. It is a peak into the eye of madness. Flirting with the void and what might live there. For me, the last chapters were a bit anticlimactic. Please check content warnings. There is some emotionally rough stuff. Child and animal abuse (and death), mental health, drug abuse, etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

antares's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

after exactly a month, i’ve finished my journey/experience/fever-dream of House of Leaves. 

and holy shit, did i love it. i have way too many thoughts and notes to even summarize my adoration and analysis  here but it was right up my alley.

of course, this is not a book for everyone—This is not for you. but if you’re a fan of ergodic literature, academic criticism, and long-winded hedonistic stream-of-consciousnesses, and if you know what you’re in for, then i would recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death of parent, Sexism, and War

jonsnowsmanbun's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

5.0

„ ...and there you have it, another body on the floor surrounded by things that don't mean much to anyone except to the one who can't take any of them along.“

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Murder, and Sexual content

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Cursing, and Death of parent

lauraorourke's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I don't even know where to start with this book! I am so glad I read it! It took me about 50 pages to really start nerding out over the book. If you're only looking for a good story, I wouldn't suggest tackling House of Leaves. But if you're interested in being taken on a reading journey or if you've ever studied (postmodern) literature and want to get back into that frame of mind, this is a book that you absolutely can't miss!

House of Leaves can only be read in physical book form. That's because the experience of reading this book is SO physical. You aren't just given a story of a house of horror. The act of reading the book itself will take you into the house, slowing you down, speeding you up, getting you lost, making you dizzy. It is that which makes this reading experience so unique, and so exciting.

House of Leaves is a multi-layered experience. In the centre is a house and a family living in that house. They discover that the inside of the house seems to be larger than the measurements on the outside. The experience of living in, and exploring that house was turned into a film, which another man spends his life trying to understand. He compiles everything he can about this film and this family, all the academic and media mentions. When he dies, a third man discovers his work, which is in fragments in an old trunk. He begins making sense of all the pieces, and putting it together, giving it order. However, regardless of the degree of separation, it seems like everyone is being haunted by this house.

My library book copy is full of post-it annotations. I found myself entirely enthralled by this book, the way it made me think and feel and reflect and fall into the house. This book is not for everybody, but I hope it's for you. Because it's nothing like other books.

(At the moment I'm rating this 4 stars. I feel like the story is 3 stars and the way the book is written is 5 stars. But I know that even the slow parts of the story (not all of it is slow!) has a purpose, and I may eventually bring this book up to a 5 star read. I have to see how long I nerd out over it, I suppose.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, and Murder

Minor: Cancer and Vomit

jerusha's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Violence, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Confinement, Blood, Addiction, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Child abuse

Minor: Ableism, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Child death, and Cancer