Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones

3 reviews

browneyesblue84's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.5

The angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones is my least favorite book of 2024 so far. The reason is because they were moments when it felt like a sure to read it. This book is a part of a trilogy. The first two books have a slow pace, but the payoff in the end is worth it. Unfortunately, this book starts off well and then drags on in the middle. Goal of reading this book was to see how it was going to end. Now that I read the ending I’m just disappointed. Jade Daniels is a character who grew on me, but it felt at times her narration rambled on and on and on. In the previous books, jades narration did not go off in tangents. I rated this book 3 stars out of five because I gave it a try, but unfortunately, the ending did not satisfy me because it felt anticlimactic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Graphic: Colonisation, Cursing, Gun violence, Confinement, Gore, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Torture, Classism, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, Rape, and Self harm

poetsofsweetpea's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It is always a shock to me when a horror novel wrecks me.  It's not that it is hard to bring me to tears, coffee commercials at Christmas time can do it.  It's just, when a novel spends a good amount of time ripping the guts from its characters, I figure mine are safe.  The Angel of Indian Lake though, gutted me.  It's not just that I love Jade. She's one of the few characters in fiction that I genuinely adore, that I want to reach into the pages of the book and shake because she can't see how special she is. It's also because her growth is so completely perfect.   While the other novels in the series felt like love letters to the genre of slashers, this third and final installment felt, to me, like an homage to the American experience.  In that it highlighted our obsession with pop culture until it mirrors our everyday lives.  The seeds may come from foreign places, but the fruit is all ours, the soil, the climate, and the future of the plant are in the hands of the depraved and brave.  There are so many things I want to say about this novel. I want to write about why this book made me cry, but I hate spoilers in reviews.  I'm also never sure if it is just me or if every reader will love it as much as I do.  There were fewer POV's in this one and I was grateful for that.  The POV's that emerge also had voices that were different. I was never lost in who was telling me the story.  I am glad most of it was from Jade. I listened to the audio book and having Steven King be the voice of the teacher was so perfect.  I almost don't want to tell anyone, just so it can hit them the way it hit me.   In a lot of ways The Angel of Indian Lake felt like three books, like there were three final scenes.  The book was full of blood.  It was leaking out on every page, but it also had heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Animal death, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, Police brutality, Stalking, and Torture