Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Hell House by Richard Matheson

45 reviews

mechtimber's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Sexual content, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Lesbophobia

jamo_etc's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Some good horror concepts, could have done without all the sexual violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Drug abuse, and Sexual violence

humnak's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

My first read from richard matheson. 

Lets get the characters straight first cuz the names were so confusing! 

Deaustch- the rich guy who wants the investigation to be done at hell house for life after death, which he refers to as “survival”. Also the current owner of hell house.

Florence tanner- a medium/spiritualist. Florence was definitely one of my favourite out of the bunch.. 

Benjamin franklin fischer- a guy who survived the hell house in 1940, 30 years ago when he was 15, also a medium. And he seems to be the most aware of how the hell house works and how it manipulates the residents. I loved the scene where he got a wake up call and realised he was THE most powerful physical medium and was missing the opportunity to take hell house head on. Wow that complete monologue was intense. 

Spoiler (.  Plus towards the end he was practically the main character) 

Dr. Lionel Barret- a physicist with an interest in parapsychology. And Edith, his wife. I personally didn’t like Edith and Dr. Barrett much cuz Dr. Barrett refused to believe in the supernatural despite the fact that the worst of it was right in his face. 

But that ending changed most of my presumptions.

And as the story progresses the happenings and incidents keep getting more and more frequent and dangerous. And I pretty much loved the final act- the gruesomeness and intensity of the incidents- except for how the said malevolent powerful entity was dealt with. 

One major turn off about the whole book was the amount of sex scenes in it. Pretty unnecessary and although I am new to horror books but having watched so many horror movies I sort of know that the older horror movies/books have so damn much sexual scenes.. sometimes it gets more disturbing than the actual horror story. As I had to skip through the said scenes, it took me out of the story. Which I didn’t like. This could have done without those scenes. 

SPOILERS

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I felt so bad for Barret at the end. The knowledge of his failure plaguing him to death. Sucks. He was right after all. 

As I read somewhere- and it couldnt be better explained than this- “Armed with this insight, Burnout guy goads Belasco’s spirit out of hiding, then mercilessly taunts and shames him into oblivion.” 

The reason why it felt so anticlimactic. 

Recently I am writing the word “anticlimactic” more and more in my reviews cuz all these horror books are so so good right until the end. It’s like the author almost convinced you that its a masterpiece but then completely missed the ending. 

It was good and enjoyable nonetheless so 3 out of 5 stars! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

wyatwrig's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Gore, Incest, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual harassment

dnymcn's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

twoheaded_boy's review against another edition

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

ziggymoonrock's review

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Ableism, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

mollymisek's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Although there were some genuinely frightening parts of this book and a few fun plot twists, Hell House was a strange blend of horny scenes and cheesy dialogue. Some of it can be chalked up to the 70s commercial horror writing style, but this really wasn’t for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Death, Sexual violence, Body horror, Blood, Murder, Sexual content, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death and Misogyny

Minor: Alcohol and Cannibalism

iamastraythought's review against another edition

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? No

3.75

The formula always works. Put a group of strangers in a haunted house, wind them up, watch them go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, Body horror, Self harm, Rape, and Sexual assault

caitlynfox's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

Felt very much so like a book written in the 70s. Female characters are there only to be disgraced (also, oh no a lesbian!!! How terrifying /s), both male leads are too above everyone else to actually be of help in a haunted house situation. Only gave two stars because of the fast pace, how easy it was to read, and I enjoyed the premise for the most part.  Check warnings but know that most happen off page/brief description etc 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, and Sexual assault