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leexpenandpages's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
📝 SYNOPSIS:
Struggling with all-consuming rage, Jane North-Robinson feels chilled by more than just the autumn air when she and her mother move to her mother's childhood home, where Jane must dig up her mother's secrets to understand what is happening.
🏚📚🌹🎒🪦👻👩👧🎃😭
👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💛 READ IF you've got nothing else, if it works for a reading challenge, etc.
Struggling with all-consuming rage, Jane North-Robinson feels chilled by more than just the autumn air when she and her mother move to her mother's childhood home, where Jane must dig up her mother's secrets to understand what is happening.
🏚📚🌹🎒🪦👻👩👧🎃😭
👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💛 READ IF you've got nothing else, if it works for a reading challenge, etc.
💬 FAVORITE QUOTES:
• Pg. 201
do books taste like roses?
• Pg. 209-210 (TR: Mental illness, depression)
A flash of the earth with everything destroyed except this house, the last building standing, and Jane within it, trapped inside its walls, not really caring anymore whether she made it out or not.
• Pg. 214 (TR: Mental illness, compulsive behaviors)
She imagined the words dissolving off the paper and sinking into her bloodstream. She imagined her body filled with words. Made up of them. Words instead of blood, words instead of organs.
👓 FORMAT:
📖
📑 COMMENTS:
• The main characters are complex and flawed. Jane's friends are heartwarming and supportive.
• Jane is frustrating slow to figure out what happened, leaping to illogical conclusions for the sake of continuing the mystery.
• I mostly agree with the Booklist quote on the back, which reads, "Leno blends Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson for a narrative that ranges from unsettling to genuinely terrifying." (I did not find the narrative terrifying but otherwise agree.)
• The book starts a little too slow, and it ends a little too quickly, but the middle is well-paced.
• Race is poorly represented. Some of the characters seem like they were originally intended to be POCs but were changed to white or the author used POC aesthetics. The black characters are black only in description of skin tone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Bullying, Murder, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Addiction, and Mental illness
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Pregnancy, Animal death, Violence, Self harm, and Cursing
Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Blood, and Classism
quercine's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
5.0
Incredibly unique style and really vivid writing. The setting, atmosphere, and emotions are all very richly detailed, and once things got going I couldn’t stop reading. There are lots of layers to symbolism and metaphors, as well as to the relationships between characters.
The ending was unexpected and shocking, and left me sort of just staring into the middle distance for a while. I hated it as the conclusion for characters I had grown to love but loved it as a piece of writing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Body horror, Bullying, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Vomit, and Violence
Minor: Confinement
vi_holmes's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I loved this book so much...until the ending. Leno does such a great job of making you feel Jane's paranoia and her spiral. I was so immersed in the story! To the point that the predictability of the twists was very forgivable. But I can't forgive how blunt and pointless the ending is. It feels like there's a whole 3rd act missing.
TLDR: Scary, but the ending -- or really lack thereof -- took a lot away from it.
TLDR: Scary, but the ending -- or really lack thereof -- took a lot away from it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Child death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder
Moderate: Self harm and Suicide
themes of paranoia, anger management issues due to mental health, and feelings of growing insanitykhakipantsofsex's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Animal death and Self harm
mangela_28's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death and Death of parent
Minor: Self harm
halopink's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This cover is gorgeous. The writing and dialogue were 👌🏻👌🏻
Unfortunately the story itself was pretty forgettable. I was really digging this book but wasn’t a big fan of the ending.
Unfortunately the story itself was pretty forgettable. I was really digging this book but wasn’t a big fan of the ending.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Grief
Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, Bullying, and Death
Minor: Self harm and Pregnancy
michleea's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, and Death
Moderate: Child death and Self harm
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
issiwerro's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What an ending! Utterly evil and horrid and I loved it, 3.5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, and Eating disorder
Minor: Suicide, Self harm, Death of parent, and Child death
catsy2022's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Rating: A-
An unexpectedly dark YA horror novel, Horrid by Katrina Leno was a lovely, fast read and a great addition to my 2021 reads. Ruth and Jane move across the country from California to Maine after Greer, Ruth's husband and Jane's father, dies. But the North Manor where Ruth grew up holds mysterious secrets, a locked room in the back and a rose bush that seems to overpower the yard it grows in.
I definitely enjoyed reading about Jane and Ruth's strained relationship and the interaction between Jane, her friends and the other townspeople. I felt that the unravelling of the mystery may have been more interesting that the final reveal. So many parts of this book are strange and unexplained, just bordering on absurd. Seems that Jane has unbridled rage simmering below the surface and anything could set her off. She seems to completely black out when this happens. I loved the interaction with the other characters when this happens and how shocked and unsettled they are. I definitely enjoyed the moments in the house where things are completely scrambled and then back to normal. I liked the bonding moments between Ruth and Jane. The interwoven grieving and new beginnings were great points in the book.
I did like the final reveal but I felt the book ended all too abruptly - with little resolution as to the other plotlines. Definitely a fun, short read.
An unexpectedly dark YA horror novel, Horrid by Katrina Leno was a lovely, fast read and a great addition to my 2021 reads. Ruth and Jane move across the country from California to Maine after Greer, Ruth's husband and Jane's father, dies. But the North Manor where Ruth grew up holds mysterious secrets, a locked room in the back and a rose bush that seems to overpower the yard it grows in.
I definitely enjoyed reading about Jane and Ruth's strained relationship and the interaction between Jane, her friends and the other townspeople. I felt that the unravelling of the mystery may have been more interesting that the final reveal. So many parts of this book are strange and unexplained, just bordering on absurd. Seems that Jane has unbridled rage simmering below the surface and anything could set her off. She seems to completely black out when this happens. I loved the interaction with the other characters when this happens and how shocked and unsettled they are. I definitely enjoyed the moments in the house where things are completely scrambled and then back to normal. I liked the bonding moments between Ruth and Jane. The interwoven grieving and new beginnings were great points in the book.
I did like the final reveal but I felt the book ended all too abruptly - with little resolution as to the other plotlines. Definitely a fun, short read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Mental illness
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Self harm, and Suicide
ravensandlace's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com
Pica: an eating disorder that involves eating items that are not typically thought of as food and that does not contain significant nutritional value such as hair, dirt and paint chips. This is according to the National Eating Disorders website. Nationaleatingdisorders.org
Wowowowowow! What an absolutely FANTASTIC book. I loved every single minute of it. I stayed up way past my bedtime trying to finish this book. The only reason I didn’t finish it in one sitting was because my eyes were burning. That’s how much I loved this book. I never wanted it to end. It kicked my reading slump that I had been in.
The minute I read the first page, I immediately had a very unsettled feeling and that feeling never went away. I loved every single minute of this unsettling feeling. It reminded me of watching Sinister, one of my all time favorite horror movies. I just knew something was going to happen and whatever was going to happen wasn’t going to be good. The creep factor was done just beautifully.
I enjoyed Jane as the main character, which I didn’t think I would. She was unlikable at times but I found I didn’t mind that. She was very complex and had so many layers to her. You see her angry and I actually loved that. I don’t read about a lot of girls with anger issues. It was refreshing. I truly thought her anger would make me not like her at all but I found her anger was the best part of her character. Weird to say, I know. But it was just refreshing. Jane was so so angry and I felt for her.
Another fascinating thing about this book was the mention of pica. Jane has pica, which I provided a definition for you at the top. I know that not a lot of people know what pica is or understand it. I have worked with several clients that had pica. It’s a very interesting and difficult illness. I don’t know what it’s like to have it but working with the clients I have, I can only imagine what it would be like to have it.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this book. It’s one of my all time favorite books of 2020. The reason why I gave this book 4.5 stars is because the ending was a bit of an open ending. I’m personally not the biggest fan of open ending books. I prefer knowing specifically what happens to the character. But other than that, this book was absolutely amazing and I loved it so very much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder and Mental illness
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Death, Violence, and Self harm