Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

21 reviews

smokeyphynix's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Drug use, Self harm, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Rape, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

gamerreaper13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.75

This book was hard to get through. Not because it was profound or gruesome or enlightening, it was just so damn BORING.

Jade was annoying and uninteresting. The constant call backs to slasher films was cute at first but quickly became repetitive and irritating. I signed up for a slasher book and only got the slashing in the final 100 pages of the book. 

The twist at the end was good and the gore (when it happened) was amazingly written, it was just having to crawl and claw through the first 350 pages to get there. I found myself skimming pages waaaay too often throughout this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Blood, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Animal death, Gore, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Rape

Minor: Abortion

jully_bean's review

dark emotional 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

The book started out a little bit slow in the early parts while introducing the characters and setting the scene. But once things started getting more tense, it was hard to put down! Such a unique story!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Blood, Gore, Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, and Medical content

Moderate: Physical abuse, Animal death, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault and Incest

tesshersh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.5

I’m not sure if I extra enjoyed this book because I’ve read so many BAD books lately, or if it really IS that good, so take this with a grain of salt. But WOW. One of my only gripes is that it touches on some themes that I’m not 100% sure I love being talked abt from a teenage girl’s perspective written by a male author, but I think it was respectfully done. 
Spoiler for my other complaint:

I wish that the conclusion/reveal of the killer DIDN’T have a supernatural element. I think the author’s point of regarding real life not being like a horror/slasher movie, about things like gentrification & colonization being a type of horror and violence of their own, was backtracked a bit by letting jade’s theory of a supernatural element be true at the end.

Also: cannot recommend the audio book enough, cara gee was amazing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Abortion, Colonisation, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Death, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Suicide, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, Child death, Incest, and Gore

HUGE trigger warnings - not just in the gore/violence you would associate with a thriller but for other content as well, please check content warnings before reading

hintermost'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? It's complicated

1.0

Fucking hell, this book has so many issues. Jade Daniels is far and away one of the most annoying protagonists I have ever bore witness to. So much so, that by the time her trauma gets revealed by the end of the book, you can barely sympathize with her, you just want the book to be over with already. If I have to read the phrase "final girl" or get another "well I'm an outcast!11!!" one more time, I'd be liable to pull my own hair out.

The book setup itself is an overly-bloated mess, getting quite exhausting to read in the middle chapters. This issue is exasperated further by the usage of the "Slasher 101" sections between chapters. I know this is meant to further allow the reader access to Jade's horror knowledge and her relationship with Mr. Holmes, but it's just grating - especially when most of it is irrelevant to the plot.

As a result of the bloated, poorly planned plot, the actual horror doesn't occur until the tail end of the novel. When it finally happens, it seems like less of a well-planned ending point, and more "cobbled-together-to-meet-a-deadline."

I have no intention of reading the sequels, as this first novel was and annoying, unfocused, bloated mess of a work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment

emma_l_f44's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Murder, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, and Domestic abuse

chloseencounter's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.0

An ode to the slasher, this novel really stole my heart pretty quickly. I enjoyed the MC (and maybe related to her a little too much…) The reason this isn’t a 4⭐️ for me is that the first 100 pages and last 100 pages where so fun but in between it was rather dense. As someone who has loved the slasher genre ever since Scream graced my eyeholes for the first time, I really enjoyed exploring the mind of the MC and all the slasher input she had on the genre, but I think this could be a harder read for most general audiences. The second book in the trilogy comes out this month and I’ll be excited to see how the story continues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Confinement, Abortion, Blood, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Misogyny

bambooboy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense fast-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: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Cursing, Self harm, Alcoholism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Classism, Sexual assault, Grief, Rape, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

uv_sensibility's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Violence, Alcoholism, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Gore, Rape, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

akmay17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Rape, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Animal death, Incest, Violence, Alcohol, Gore, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Vomit