Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

34 reviews

aleen_elizabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

gojenjen84's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Slow burn, so much action in the end of the book, plot at the end seemed a little rushed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail

fortmeines's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I had a mostly good time reading this book. I was invested in the story and wanted to know where it was going. I loved the premise and I initially loved the characters, but the quality did fall off towards the end.

I thought it was a great way of showing the depravity of humans and the lengths they will go to when they feel trapped and scared. 

Minus points for:

• The author's weird boob/nipple and sexual assault obsession
• The author's inability to write decent female characters with actual personalities that are not all about the men in their lives
• Personal thing, but the
  main character's clear preference for his straight son over his gay one
  .
• The synopsis was kinda misleading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Suicide

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

ifeanart's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Grief, and Suicide attempt

tavvyj's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.75

I read this in a book club and can tell I liked it quite a bit more than most of them did. This novel is emotional, and so much of it is tense. Heuvelt uses very specific language to stand out specific passages, and because of that it can warrant disgust at times.

I'm going to talk about the nipples here, which are a large part of the shock value. My friends said things like "don't make a drinking game out of it" and the like, so while I was reading I kept count of the mentions. While it's a higher number than one would expect in a non-smut or romance book, it mentions them 10 total times, 9 of which are for shock value and disgust. Talking about Tyler's nips was weird though. 

In any case, the use seems pretty clear to make the imagery stand out and not just mentioning nipples just to mention nipples as my friends emphasized.

The book is dark and emotional, it's horrific. And it's a reminder that the true evil in the world is, and has always been, humans being afraid of something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

luxrae's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

lozziejhall's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

breezer's review

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

alexandrias_library's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

chainsawheartbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I’ve finally finished this.

The combination of characters and insane morals people will drop to all for the “good of the town” were really interesting, and I found the actual setting intriguing, I loved learning more about its rich and fucked up history. 

But this felt like a slog. I really wanted to enjoy it more than I did, and I can’t really put my finger on why I didn’t.

There was a whole host of characters that I both wanted more information on, while also not really caring what happened to them.

And I really wish that the witch had more to do, especially in the end. I understand the whole metaphorical aspect of it, but I wanted her to get shit done.

All in all, I’m content with the fact I’ve read it, but I sadly can’t see myself revisiting this. Evidently this just wasn’t for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Racism, Islamophobia, and Fire/Fire injury