Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

21 reviews

lionfish_22's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Self harm

Minor: Alcohol and Drug use

smylieman's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Medical trauma, Blood, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

threeundertwopnw's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Abortion, and Self harm

alxjasper's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A beautifully written gothic horror. Some plot points were prredictable but the sense of tension and horror was well maintained throughout.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Medical trauma, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Minor: Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, War, Vomit, Violence, Self harm, and Gaslighting

accidentallyinspace's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

If you read these reviews, you'll see two kinds of people: the people who liked the first part, with the romance and light spooks, and the people who liked the second, with the horror. I am in the second camp, for full disclosure.

For the first 30% of this book, I assumed I wouldn't be finishing it, as the trappings of a traditional romance novel were more overt than I liked. I assumed the supernatural element would be little more than the elements in the original Haunting of Hill House, which (very slight spoilers for that) 

felt very lackluster in haunting details compared to more modern haunted house stories.

  However, partially through the book the supernatural aspect has the volume raised from a 3 to an 11, and the story begins to echo The Yellow Wallpaper combined with some body horror and a truly harrowing (if a tad long-winded) ritual experience. The ending leaves some questions unanswered, at least to my dense mind, and I'm not wholly convinced the whole thing wasn't just

an allegory for pregnancy and miscarriage. There's a strong theme of Jane doing the proper thing repeatedly, as a wife and host, and the concept of shame being something that dark forces feed on is made entirely explicit. Between all that, the ectopic pregnancy earlier in the book, and Jane growing what is ostensibly a magic tumor baby (seriously) while slowly unraveling in both body and mind while her husband is absent... I dunno, that makes sense to me.

. 

I'd recommend this if you've got a medium-strong stomach for handling gore and self-flagellation, and are okay walking away with a few "huh" moments towards the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Pregnancy, Medical content, and Self harm

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed this book until about 4/5 of the way through, when it delved into

the details of Jane’s magic rituals and mathematical theories.

Until that point, the book thoroughly held my interest and the pacing felt well-suited to the plot. My interest really dipped during the 80-86% part of the book, but did gradually return after that.

The ending was layered, a bit surprising, and intriguing.

It wasn’t a true happy ending, but it was mostly hopeful.

I felt that the ending redeemed the book overall. The main characters and their relationship were compelling, and I found myself really rooting for them.  I especially loved that Jane’s autism is portrayed so lovingly and as the superpower that it is. There isn’t nearly enough autism representation in literature, and the horror genre is no exception, so Jane is a breath of fresh air. (Jane’s autism is alluded to—and not directly described, but the author confirmed this fact!)

I may not revisit this book, but I’d happily read more work from this author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Blood, Miscarriage, Gore, Body horror, Death, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Terminal illness, Self harm, Child death, Death of parent, and Drug use

Minor: Vomit, War, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Abandonment, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Sexual content

clairefrances_8's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Like a harrowing maze meets a mathematical mind. Have we trapped ourselves or imagined the world into existence?

Ghosts aren’t real

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm

buildingtaste's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

2.75

From the first chapter, I always felt like this book was not quite telling me everything I needed to know. Since the setting is an alternate England, I would have expected more direct exposition about the things that make it meaningfully different, and also for these differences to have an impact on the story. As it was, we were soon locked in a country house, fundamentally indistinguishable from an English house (except of course for

the haunted basement

. Though having never stayed in an English country house I guess I can't be sure). Simply setting this novel in a more familiar country, even if in a fictional town or county, would have made this experience much more grounded and improved the contrast of familiar and unfamiliar once things got really weird.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Self harm, Torture, Death, Abandonment, Mental illness, Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Sexual content and Forced institutionalization

As a gothic horror novel, Jane Lawrence comes in fast with explicit gore. Elements of the magic system involve having something affecting a person's organs/moving inside their body, which

the protagonist

describes experiencing in detail.

illuminatedspace'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? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Abortion, Grief, Murder, Confinement, Death, Medical content, Pregnancy, Self harm, Torture, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: War and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use

softanimal's review

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

2.5

I was hooked at the beginning and through the first half but then it lost me and the horror just felt over extended and uninteresting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Blood, Confinement, Medical trauma, Self harm, Drug use, Gore, Medical content, and Murder