Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

15 reviews

taliesinrex's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

I found this one a little harder to follow than its predecessor at times, and wasn't sure how I felt about the Ginger/Cinnamon twist. However, this was still a ton of fun and I really enjoyed returning to Proofrock and following Jade after her release from prison following My Heart Is A Chainsaw. While there's a lot of back-and-forth in the blizzard, I think the heavy snowfall and lack of communication resources or way into/out of town lend themselves well to a tense and harrowing plot. I also think the supernatural elements of this were a little better integrated than in the first book.

I really was not expecting to like Banner going into this, but he really came through and I found him an interesting "outsider" type of character to follow in contrast to Letha and Jade. In general it was cool to get to know some of the other characters featured in the first book in-depth, and involving the kids who survived the massacre in Chainsaw was a very fun move. This one really moves into a full-on teen-killing slasher VERY quick and I had a great time with it. I do wish we got a little bit more discussion about

Theo Mondragon between Jade and Letha as while it would definitely be a stressful moment for their friendship I would have liked to see that side of things as well as how Letha felt about Jade's testimony/her father at large. I also think some kind of discussion on that would have been an interesting potential foil to Jade's parents, especially her mom now showing up towards the end of Don't Fear The Reaper to finally stand up and try to defend her daughter (which yes, did make me cry).

Its pace is significantly quicker than Chainsaw but it is about the same length, which I think works both for and against it. It ramps up the action fast and never takes its foot off the pedal, but as I noted there is a lot of literal back-and-forth and characters traverse the town which can make things hard to follow especially in conjunction with Jones's writing style. Even so, a great sequel in my opinion; very excited to read The Angel of Indian Lake.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking and Mental illness

Minor: Pedophilia

devilledgreggs's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

Stephen graham jones I love you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Animal death, Death of parent, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, and Death

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Medical content, Gun violence, and Alcoholism

Minor: Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Mental illness, Incest, Cultural appropriation, Sexual assault, and Dementia

jcbkr's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Gore, Death, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

elysianbud's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"...many sequels have surpassed their original!"
"Name one!"

The answer: 'Don't Fear the Reaper'.

He's only gone and Terminator 2/Aliens/The Godfather Part 2'd us. One has to wonder if Stephen Graham Jones did this on purpose--the ultimate meta callback to Scream 2's classroom scene about sequels, because this sequel is better than the original.

Yet another incredibly fun ode to slashers, in my opinion, 'Don't Fear the Reaper' far exceeds its predecessor. I found the plot easier to follow, the characters more alive (until they're dead), and overall more entertaining. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Child death, and Animal death

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Classism, Medical trauma, Cursing, Drug use, Alcohol, Colonisation, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, and Medical content

jillaay_h's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Violence

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-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

5.0

I totally get that this book isn't for everyone. It's a gore-filled, violent, dense book that has prose that often twists into itself so often that I had to keep going back to see what I missed. But I loved it. I honestly think it's better than My Heart Is A Chainsaw--something about Jade and her crew being grown up and them dealing with this trauma and violence that is at the heart of the American West and the small towns just hit right. And I didn't know if I would love the multiple character POV, but it worked so well. It also had these moments of dark humor that made me chuckle amongst the horror that I just loved (Jade being indignant about a slahser using a gun was very good). I am not particularly familiar with slasher movies (I can read gore, but I can't watch it), but that didn't really turn me off anything in this book. 

My only criticism is that I felt that the fantastical element was as seamlessly integrated into the plot as it was in the last one. But I'm so excited for the third book in this series it's been so good so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Mental illness, Torture, Body horror, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Self harm, and Animal death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

jayjm94's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

As perfect a book as I’ve ever read. It had everything: horror references, incredibly adept women, strange teenagers, a small town on the water, a snowstorm, and some light supernatural content. an absolute gem by SGJ, almost certainly my best book of the year (close 2nd being my heart is a chainsaw) cannot wait for the 3rd!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Body horror, and Drug use

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Car accident, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Animal death, and Incest

teaxmillions's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Gore, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Pandemic/Epidemic

megandherbook's review against another edition

dark hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

 The second book in the Indian Lake Trilogy did not disappoint. In fact, I think I enjoyed this read better than the first.

Jade Daniels, now going by Jennifer, returns to Proofrock after spending the past 4 years in prison due to the infamous events that people call the 4th of July massacre. Right when she returns, a convicted serial kill named Dark Mill South escapes his prison transfer convoy right near Proofrock during an intense blizzard. Jade (or Jennifer) is thrown right back into the world of slashers and will have to use her vast knowledge of horror movies that she's tried to forget to save her and the others in this town. But as before, Proofrock and Indian Lake are never quite what they seem.

First, I want to say that if you are a fan of horror movies, especially slashers, at the very least you'll appreciate the vast knowledge Stephen Graham Jones includes in this series. It's a dream for horror aficionados - I even wrote quite a view titles down that I wasn't familiar with.

While I enjoyed the first book, it was exhausting being inside Jade's head the whole time. Sometimes it was hard figuring out what was fact and what was just in Jade's head. I very much enjoyed how this book jumped between narrators. While it may seem confusing (and could be at times) I felt like I had a better understanding of what was going on. It also really allowed me to get a sense of just how impactful the Lake Killings of 4 years prior were to the town and people in it as a whole. The amount of characters are a lot, however, each one serves an important purpose and helped the many moving parts of this book to come together. This book also solidified my love for both Jade and Letha.

Overall, I highly recommend this horror series. To fully appreciate Don't Fear the Reaper I recommend reading the first book My Heart is a Chainsaw first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit and Gun violence

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Child death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

chloseencounter's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

I was so excited to get my hands on this novel and it did not disappoint, I felt as if a lot of the things I wanted more of in My Heart is a Chainsaw where delivered to me on a silver platter in this sequel. More slashing and more Jade and Letha being a duo. The book was actually longer than the first and yet I flew through it in no time. My Heart is a Chainsaw sort of dragged a bit in the middle but it all paid off in this sequel because I already went in loving these characters, which made it all the more enjoyable. As a slasher girl myself I have such deep love and empathy for Jade as a MC and I was so happy to hear from her again, like an old friend, (actually, we graduated the same year so we would’ve definitely been friends in high school.) There were literally moments in this book that made me internally cheer for my girls! Jade and Letha will always have my heart. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the end of the Indian Lake trilogy and of Jade’s journey.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence