Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

32 reviews

jilly_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I DEVOURED this book. I rarely get this enthusiastic about new horror and this was just *chef’s kiss* perfection. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Abortion, and Death of parent

aparker89's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

This is a solid book! A fascinating story full of terror, love, heartbreak and most importantly- the evil of mankind! 
Good f&cking book! Definitely not for the faint of heart but damn- my heart hurts after reading this! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

maddie1280's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I will forever be scarred. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

quazimodo's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

2.75

Te veel tepels. Taalgebruik van de tieners is erg grof.

Wat was dat einde, man? Ik had dit misschien niet moeten lezen voor het slapengaan...

Boek bevat een redelijke lijst aan trigger warnings, zoek ze op voor je gaat lezen, alsjeblieft?

Een interessant boek maar het was gewoon denk ik niet voor mij. Blij dat ik het heb gelezen maar ik heb nu een lichter boek nodig haha

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Torture

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Self harm and Excrement

gabitried's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Rape

kellyofcali's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

3.25

I really like the first three-quarters of this - a horrifying slow burn. It is pretty brutal and gruesome, so beware if you don't like sort of gory and generally troubling horror. However, the end suddenly shot off the rails into chaos, feeling out of character with the book and frankly losing me a bit - I preferred the slower build.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Religious bigotry

thekatd's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

Hated it. This book has a scary premise but never manages to be scary. It throws in random, disgusting moments (usually at the expense of women) that were completely unnecessary that made me want to stop reading. The author has a random obsession over women's breasts being hurt and it made me deeply uncomfortable that this was an ongoing theme. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Fire/Fire injury

geerbeer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Leuk boek. Baalde alleen van de mega misogyne teksten, de onnodige dan die niet echt een punt maken behalve shockeren. Vooral nieuwsgierig heel de tijd, ik vond het in het begin een beetje 'eary', maar niet eng voor de rest van het boek.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Physical abuse and Racism

tbd24's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

First things first, if you haven’t read this book yet, check the trigger warnings bc hot damn. Literally everything is graphic.

I have a difficult time rating this because i feel like, technically, in some ways, it was a pretty good book. The writing was lush and evocative, and sense of horror well maintained and accentuated with moments of humor or banality or otherwise. However, I feel like the book had a lot of problems with realistic character choices. Tyler and Jaden are the only two people who feel like fully realized characters who have motive and personality and make wise and unwise choices. Every other named character makes choices that are convenient to the plot and every unnamed background character (the citizens of black springs, who seem to number in the thousands??) are just a faceless mass of mob mentality. I feel like the author spent little time convincing me that thousands of people would make the irrational choices they did, and more time moralizing that humanity is stupid and hopeless and violent. I am already biased against this opinion so i guess take this with a grain of salt. The last 25% of the book is just hitting you over the head with “people are stupid and violent and humanity sucks”, down to steve’s final decision to

let his wife and son die in a fire for literally no reason, after already realizing that Catherine had no power over the situation

. I understand this is a horror novel but it’s just truly boring to me when authors act like the end is fated and don’t even bother to make the characters choices make sense.

Beyond this, the main problem I had throughout the whole book was the authors blatant sexism. The only woman in this book with anything like power or agency was the literal witch, who’s literally wrapped in chains with her mouth and eyes sewn shut. Every description of a woman fell neatly into category of “ugly old hag”, “mom”, or “sexual object with no personality”.  Not even any bitches! Sometimes women would cross contaminate, and be an ugly old hag who was at least worth it for the tits, or a mom who still put out every night for her husband. Even in moments when it made absolutely no sense, the author found a way to get a woman naked (ie;

the head council guy groping Griselda bizarrely, Jocelyn having a hallucination of being fucked by a boar, or the fact that she was inexplicably naked at the end???? literally why was she naked???

). Obviously the first red flags were that none of Tyler’s friends were girls, and Matt apparently had no friends, and all of the adult women were hysterical and/or completely reliant on their husbands, but I was lulled into a sense of hope by  Catherine being possibly powerful and maybe secretly the moral was that people discredit women but noooo the author made sure to remind you that catherine was a woman with tits too. Like, it was so jarring every time it happens bc I’d be immersed in a tense scene and then completely taken out because the author just HAD to mention boobies RIGHT NOW ( I literally laughed out loud at

the jocelyn/boar scene, i was so excited to have a moment of her pov and her taking action but nope fucked by a boar and as soon as she finds a man she becomes completely feeble again

). I just quite literally felt like the author never imagined anyone but a white cis man reading his book. I don’t even want to talk about Griselda. 

Anyway yeah I think that’s it. Some very stunning moments of evocative writing. Some equally stunning moments of sexism, nihilism, and general senseless violence. Not really my thing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kt2e56's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

One of the more fucked up books I’ve read in awhile. There’s a dark sense of humor here mixed in with a macabre, gruesome fairytale that feels oddly fitting in today’s climate with Puritan “Christian” values and fascism on the rise hand in hand with a fear of the “other.”

I definitely recommend this one but agree with others about the bizarre fixation on nipples.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Excrement, Islamophobia, Sexual harassment, and Classism