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achay91's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.75
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Murder
emilysunflowers's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
r_o_s_e's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Grief
Minor: Child death, Islamophobia, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
butyougotmysoul's review against another edition
1.0
Gemma couldn’t accept her daughter’s disability and looked at her as a “monster”
Ghost consistently called himself a monster and a burden.
I don’t know if it’s the content or the tone, but I do not get along with this author’s books. Rather than horror, they’re all just vaguely gory, ableist, and meandering. I don’t think I’ll be trying anymore of their writing.
Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
mfrisk's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Suicide
dean_reviews's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
It was an amazing book, but also such a hard and emotional read.
I don't think that I was fully prepared for what I was getting myself into when I started this book. I am still glad that I did read it though.
***Content warnings for this book:
This story is told to us in a narrative form that follows multiple people who are effected by the events happening in the small Connecticut town of Henley's Edge. Our cast of characters is varied and diverse. A group of people who would be impacted by the internal workings of a small town in profound ways that intersect but are also unique and troubling.
I feel like a lot of this story is me going "yup... that tracks" when something happens that does feel into my pre-conceived notions of how a small town would engage with and deal with the particular issues at hand.
I know this is unfair in a lot of ways and it did make me stop and wonder if LaRocca was writing from personal experience, general stereotypical knowledge, or held beliefs?
I did find myself needing breaks from the contents of the books. Don't get me wrong, I am no stranger to a dark and traumatizing book, but something about this one just hit so differently... I am wondering if it was feeding off of my own concerns over treatment I might receive as a trans person in those places.
Harnessing real fears and concerns of those within the communities of the characters to make the struggles and pain feel more real.
I also wonder.... if maybe this would have been less needed had I been reading with my eyes and not my ears.
On that note.. the audio was really good. I loved the flow and tone that Andre Santana brought to the story. The depth that was given to the hard moments and the emotion that was brought into the characters.
Overall, I am happy that I read this book and I am curious to pick up more of their books in the future. I would recommend this book so long as I also gave them the laundry list of trigger warnings.
Literally my only major critique is that there is not a connected list of trigger warnings provided by the author/publisher on the listings.
***I was provided a copy of this book via NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion and thoughts about what I read.***
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Biphobia, Child death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry
micalyia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
It wasn’t scary but it was horrifying in the fact that it was just horrible how the characters keep getting knocked down by different situations
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
swalk's review against another edition
- 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
2.75
This is a dark occult horror with an LGBT+ storyline and a lot of violence and gore. I won’t quite sure what to make of it to be honest, I felt like the two stories could have been linked better and it just felt like there was something missing for me.
Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
rosage's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail