Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

50 reviews

poisoned_icecream's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

pigeonmellow's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

I’m hesitant to put a star rating, because I don’t want others to see a low-ish star rating and assume I thought Never Whistle at Night was bad. 

If you’re considering reading it, you’ll likely find something to enjoy!! It’s an anthology with over 20 short stories by as many authors, so you’re bound to find a story and an author you connect to. 

I enjoyed hearing all the different writing styles (I listened to the audiobook version), and especially loved the voice actor Sheldon Elter, who voiced several of the stories. Sheldon Elter brought the characters and action to life with his emotion and voices — and none of his skillful spice distracted from the heart of the story, only served it. Sheldon Elter — you rule! 

This book swerved for me towards the end. First, because I wasn’t aware when I picked it up that SA would be a major element in two stories (there was something that border-lined sexual violence in a third one, but it wasn’t viewed as a assault by the character who experienced it). Some readers can get through SA in their stories, but for me, it’s a trigger I can’t get past. Speaking of which: I completely skipped the second to last story (I think it was that one?) because, without warning, it opened with a first-person description of child SA in progress. I couldn’t do that one. 

Second — as someone with a mental illness, I’m always hesitant when it comes to horror stories that paint mentally ill people as monsters or mental illness as a supernatural evil. At best, it’s tired — at worst, it’s perpetuating a harmful stigma. So yeah — for me personally, it’s not enjoyable to find that the “horror” of the story is a character being mentally ill and not taking their medication. In this anthology, there was one story that disappointed me in that way. 

Lastly, I wasn’t ever creeped out by any of the stories, or on the edge of my seat with any of them — something I was looking forward to, as it was a horror anthology. Maybe that’s because I was listening to the audiobook version, and not reading in silence? 

Huge trigger warnings for colonization, racism, white supremacy, racial slurs, talk of genocide and all of that directed at Indigenous people. If that is something that is a trigger for you, just know that all of those topics come up in almost every story. As one would expect, likely, given that these are horror stories written by Indigenous people, about Indigenous characters from this real world, where all of these horrors make up the real past and present. 

Okay. ALL THAT BEING SAID: I did *really* love learning more about indigenous culture, and hearing about the fears, battles, resilience and triumphs of indigenous people. I am very interested in continuing to read my fav authors from this anthology! I learned a LOT I didn’t know before, and so much of the writing was so visceral, which I enjoyed immensely. This book has further motivated me to continue reading work by indigenous authors featuring indigenous characters and stories.

I want to note here, too, that horror stories deal with complicating and disturbing topics. So (apart from painting mental illness as an “evil”), I understand that my displeasure at some of these topics mostly means I’m a bit of a picky horror reader! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

hannahleewhite's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

asurasantosha's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Stalking, Abortion, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

scarrillo222's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? N/A

3.5

I appreciate the length of each short story. They were about 5 to 6 pages at max. Some of the stories I really enjoyed when it came to supernatural theme or more dark classic horror themes. Some of the stories did drag on a bit, but it was nice to be able to skip a story and not feel like you’re missing out on a major details since it is an anthology. By the time I finished reading the book, I did get a bit burnt out and decided not to read the last three short stories. In my opinion, the couple of short stories are the most interesting, and what really like pulled me into the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sakiido's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

nexusgoblin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

shuttersham's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

kellymacbrown's review against another edition

Wasn’t what I was expected. Just crossed some personal lines for me. Made me uncomfortable in ways that seemed to have no real purpose. Definitely dark. Loved the first story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Abortion, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

kittyinatophat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow. All of these were so well written and scary in their own right, genuinely did not read one that I didn’t enjoy. I can definitely see myself coming back to this to reread in the future! 

I did have some that I found more unsettling than others that I have to highlight:

Kushtuka - Mathilda Zeller
Hunger - Phoenix Boudreau
Before I Go - Norris Black
Night in the Chrysalis - Tiffany Morris
Scariest Story Ever - Richard Van Camp
Human Eaters - Royce K Young Wolf
Dead Owls - Mona Susan Power
The Prepper - Morgan Talty
Eulogy for a Brother, Resurrected - Carson Faust
Night Moves - Andrea L. Rogers
Capgras - Tommy Orange
The Scientist’s Horror Story - Darcie Little Badger 
Collections - Amber Blaeser-Wardzalla

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail