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dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s a horror book so the darkness is to be expected. It’s easy to dislike the characters, but that works in this book. It’s a compelling read, as you never know what is going to happen next. I loved this book way more than I thought I would, even though it sat in my TBR pile for years!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Medical content
Minor: Police brutality
It’s a book in the horror genre, expect it to have all the trigger warnings as usual.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book would have greatly benefited from condensing and trimming of the length. It drags, and the parts I feel are unnecessary really drag down the parts I do like in this book. It's somehow both too edgy and too cheesy? Overly long but also somehow underdeveloped/explored (they don't even get to Christmasland until 90% in and then Vic dies off page!) ? I liked our cast of heros, but there is so much build up that the ending feels underwhelming and the part about the ornaments felt especially cheap. Overall the book came off as very crude-- certain metaphors and instances describing child and female characters were especially off-putting to me. And that's not even to mention the gratuitous fat phobia and off-hand racist remarks by various characters (and the narrator) that I don't really feel benefited the narrative. I would recommend the audio book if for nothing else than the benefit of being able to 2.5x speed listen to it, but I would caution to definitely check trigger warnings. Also note that this book is not about vampires. This book came highly recommended, so I'm sad this one just wasn't for me.
Specific spoilers for those curious:Random n-slur and k-slur drop in one line, the dog does die--brutally. There are also a lot of descriptions of penises (and synonyms, in varying levels of ridiculous!) and their various actions. The MC gets back into good terms with her abusive father at the end, and one character is excessively, I mean everytime he's in a scene, described as fat until he gets weight loss surgery at the end of the book. Also a few unfortunate Harry Potter refs
Specific spoilers for those curious:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
First five star read of 2024!
This book was an emotional rollercoaster. Did it need to be 984 pages? No! Did I love it anyway? Yes! Despite the intimidating length of the book and some particularly (gratuitous at times) graphic moments, I loved this book.
When I first started the book I questioned how much I was really going to care about Vic “the Brat” McQueen. But by the end I didn’t want to say goodbye to her and her family. Hill does a good job building the heros and the villains of this story. While I have no sympathy for the sadistic villains in NOS4A2 they are more complex than your average vampire villain.
If the length of the book intimidates you, I highly recommend the audio book as well which is narrated by Kate Mulgrew!
I highly recommend checking TW for this book as there are a lot of upsetting and disturbing topics covered.
This book was an emotional rollercoaster. Did it need to be 984 pages? No! Did I love it anyway? Yes! Despite the intimidating length of the book and some particularly (gratuitous at times) graphic moments, I loved this book.
When I first started the book I questioned how much I was really going to care about Vic “the Brat” McQueen. But by the end I didn’t want to say goodbye to her and her family. Hill does a good job building the heros and the villains of this story. While I have no sympathy for the sadistic villains in NOS4A2 they are more complex than your average vampire villain.
If the length of the book intimidates you, I highly recommend the audio book as well which is narrated by Kate Mulgrew!
I highly recommend checking TW for this book as there are a lot of upsetting and disturbing topics covered.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Pedophilia
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder
Minor: Cancer, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
This book is about a woman who has the power of finding things and a scary man who kidnaps children to take them to Christmasland. Chaos ensues.
Things I liked:
Things I liked:
- The characters were great and felt realistic. We had time to get to know and love them before anything seriously terrible happened to them.
- The magical realism elements were really fun.
- There was a lot of tension! I genuinely didn't know what direction the story was going to go in. There wasn't a dramatic twist or anything, but I didn't predict the ending.
- The villains were scary. I didn't feel very scared when reading this book, but the first encounter the MC has with the villain is very stressful and tense.
- It all felt fairly original.
- We weren't overloaded with exposition. We slowly figured out what was going on as the characters did. I appreciated this!
Things I didn't like:
- As can be expected in a horror novel, theres a few upsetting/disturbing scenes.
- I get a little flustered in books when people have serious injuries and can just carry on like they're not in an absolute world of pain. Again, this seems typical in horror/thriller novels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Incest
Animal death: a dog gets hit by a car and then it's head smashed in with a hammer. Very upsetting scene.
Child Abuse: Not sure if what happens to the kids exactly counts as child abuse, but they go through some stuff. Nothing sexual though!
Confinement: There's a few instances of characters being trapped in small-ish spaces.
Death: Multiple deaths occur. Some are witnessed and some are talked about.
Death of a parent: Our main characters mom dies of illness. Her father gets shot by police trying to help her escape a situation. Many parents of the children taken to christmasland are killed but we mostly hear about it after the fact rather than witness it.
Fire/fire injury: Our main character gets locked in a room and the building is set on fire. Another character gets sprayed with gasoline and set ablaze. Another character burns his hand on a tail pipe. The MC burns down her house at one point.
Gun Violence: Some people get shot.
Injury/Violence: Many injuries and violence. They aren't described in excruciating detail. This isn't a splatterpunk.
Kidnapping: Charlie Manx kidnaps kids to take to christmasland and kidnaps our protagonists son.
Mental illness/gaslighting: Our main character spends a lot of time in mental facilities because no one else can hear the dead kids from christmasland calling her on he phone and she struggles to understand if her "powers" are real or not.
Misogyny: Our villains, especially the gas mask man, don't respect women very much.
Stalking: The villains kill the neighbours so they can stalk the MC.
Self harm: One characters power works best if she's experiencing pain so she burns herself with cigarettes.
Drugs/Alcohol: Some discussion of drugs and homelessness. Our MC takes an oxy at one point. A kid is drunk at one point. The gasmask man drugs his victims and children.
Medical content: There's some discussion of an autopsy.
Car Accident: There's a car accident involving a character and a child at one point. There's also a motorcycle crash.
Blood: Moderate amount.
Cursing: ome swearing but it's not every other word.
Rape/Sexual Assault/Incest: This is more discussed than witnessed by the reader. The gasmask man rapes the parents of kidnapped kids before he kills them. There's one upsetting part in which he tells another characters about forcing a dad to perform sexual acts on him. That part felt particularly upsetting. There's also an attempted rape of the MC but she outsmarts him. It is revealed early on that the gasmask man raped and killed his own mother.
Cancer: It's stated that someone died of cancer.