Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Don't Fear The Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

50 reviews

poetsofsweetpea's review against another edition

dark 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

4.75

Jade, Jade, Jade!  Here she is again not seeing who she really is.  I love a full cast narration and enjoyed listening to this book.  There was a good follow up of the living characters from My Heart is A Chainsaw but also a lot of new story.  This was not a rehashing but a continuation.  I always listen to the very end of a book and was glad I did.  The authors acknowledgements provided even more depth and if possible endeared me even more to these characters. My only complaint is that there may have been too many POV's and that mannerisms or voice bled through them all, perhaps to the detriment of the story.  I did love it though and Stephen Graham Jones is quickly becoming my favorite horror author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual assault, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, and Murder

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Blood, Misogyny, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Stalking, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Violence, Torture, Gore, Death, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

Moderate: Medical content, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Addiction, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Racism

Minor: Classism, Child death, Police brutality, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Trafficking, and Emotional abuse

PTSD, privacy invasion, mention of animal torture, s slur, MO lynching, MO Dakota 38, MO residential schools, drowning, car accident.

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Animal death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, and Gun violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Drug use, Mental illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Classism, Colonisation, Car accident, Genocide, Pedophilia, Self harm, Addiction, and Fire/Fire injury

enchantressreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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

4.0

It’s always hard to review a sequel to a book without spoilers, but in this case, Don’t Fear the Reaper is less of a sequel and more of a second novel in the same universe. It works as a standalone, but I do highly recommend reading My Heart is a Chainsaw before reading Reaper. The plot doesn’t follow much into Reaper, but you do learn a lot about the characters in Chainsaw.

I gave Chainsaw a 4.5 star rating, and I’m going with a 4 star rating for Reaper. One of the biggest reasons for this is because I felt we didn’t get to see Jade as she truly was. She was (pardon the pun) quite jaded as she returned to town after her time in prison. However, Stephen Graham Jones is one of my favorite writers, and I loved everything about the story. I just wish we had more Jade. 

I’m excited to read the third book and conclude the series. I think it’s possible my issues with the second will solve themselves in the third, as it tends to happen with middle books in a trilogy. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books/Saga Press for the advanced review copy! Don’t Fear the Reaper releases on February 7th. 

TW for blood, gore, injury, death, murder, grief, trauma, racism, animal cruelty, animal death, and an adult/minor relationship

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Violence, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Self harm, Animal cruelty, Racism, and Animal death

Minor: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide

kimberlykesq's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Blood

grimdark_dad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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: Death, Gore, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Classism

mmccombs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

SGJ!! A king! Everything he does in this book (and most of his books) is just so unexpected. Each word, each phrase, each plot point just kind of hits you out of the blue to make for very compelling horror. The way he describes things is just so him, you’ll never see anyone write the way he does. Howweevverr sometimes this incredibly strange approach to description comes at the expense of having any idea of what is going on. Some really outlandish things happen in this book (for absolutely delicious horror!) and I sometimes was confused if I was actually reading what was happening correctly because things are so round about. Like

how was Cinnamon involved? How many people (or I guess, spirits??) were out murdering in the snow? What was that part where we were under water with Stacey Graves? Was that actually happening?

. I also just had a hard time remembering what happened in the 1st book and reconciling that with the new info that came out in the 2nd, I think this is a book you have to read right after reading the first. All in all, I still had a great time reading this book, it was a phenomenally scary story about survivors guilt and trauma, but I think it just lacks a bit of the focus and heart (lol) of the first installment of the trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ninjamuse's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Vomit, and Animal death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Incest

jayla_hh's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Enjoyed this much more than book 1 of this trilogy. Jade struggling through keeping her references/interests behind her was an interesting way to show her growth from the previous book. Deaths kept you on your toes but stringing them together after the twist made it slightly confusing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

starrysteph's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

Oh, yes - this is the continuation that I craved after finishing My Heart is a Chainsaw.

 

We pick up back in Proofrock four years later, where kids have grown up and loss has reshaped the community … but some things never change, do they? There will always be a killer lurking around the corner, ready to hunt down unsuspecting locals.

 

Jade Daniels - who goes by Jennifer now, thank you - is returning to town for the first time since the events of the first book. With this new distance from her home & trauma, Jennifer has reframed her point of view a bit and no longer sees the world exclusively through the lens of slashers (as she once had to for her own protection)  - but that doesn’t mean she’s left her great depth of knowledge behind.

 

And when the power & phone line goes down and a serial killer escapes his convoy … Jennifer & Letha have to team up once more to save their town. 

 

We have a massing scattering of perspectives here, and things aren’t always told in a linear fashion. It’s fascinating but can also feel disjointing - I struggled a bit at times to recall which characters and pieces of information were a continuation from the first and which were brand new. 

 

Jones has such a unique bite and style of writing. It’s gory and horrifying and then unexpectedly emotional - and each narrator’s way of storytelling is distinctive, even those who only get a few paragraphs to shine.

 

However, I did miss Jade. She’s here, and she shines, but the focus is split so much that I was left wanting more from her arc. We’ll see where the third book goes. 

 

The pace is much faster than the first, and I found myself catching breaths alongside the characters’ brief reprieves. There’s more guts and more gore. There’s identical twin mindbenders and chilling scenes with elk and monsters that were painfully human. 

 

There’s a great blend of slasher nods and winks and references alongside horrifyingly creative all-new kills. I’ve seen my fair share of slashers but I’m sure there were also clever & specific references that went right over my head - Jones does a nice job of explaining just enough. 

 

I personally preferred Chainsaw for its deeper emotional story and focus on Jade - but Don’t Fear the Reaper was still a wonderful sequel. And if you found Chainsaw to be too slow … you won’t be disappointed here.

 

CW: murder, death, gore, blood, child death, animal death, animal cruelty, body horror, pedophilia, adult/minor relationship, drug use, abuse, gun violence, self harm, chronic illness, mental illness, medical trauma, cultural appropriation, racism, classism, vomit

 

(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Medical trauma, Self harm, Addiction, Car accident, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, Murder, Pedophilia, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Classism, Grief, and Mental illness