Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

9 reviews

sleepyshelves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Torture, Blood, Murder, Violence, Classism, Stalking, Death, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

Minor: Car accident

atomicbritt's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

perthalus's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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? No

The writer tries way to hard to make his main character an iconic badass horror protagonist to the point where it becomes eye-rolling.  Instead of focusing on character dynamics and relationships you just get mostly pointless snapshots of random character’s lives before they die a few pages after.

The antagonist somehow also feels incredibly undercooked despite the book being 500 pages long, and the prose is so confusing at times that I honestly can’t tell what is where and how something is happening. You think you’re in one place and then bam you’re on the opposite side of where you thought you were.

Made me miss the first book, which wasn’t too great in the first place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Violence, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Cursing and Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Police brutality, and Emotional abuse

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

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

I preordered this book and then proceeded to not read it for months. "Chainsaw" had what I consider the perfect ending and it was hard to imagine what a sequel could bring to the table. Now that I've finished the book I regret not giving it a chance earlier. 

While Jade is still the star of the show, this book expands to show other characters' POV, and all of these characters just feel so perfectly human. One of the early victims' internal monologue stuck with me for the entire rest of the book. There are a lot of moving parts and things going on in the book, but somehow it all slots together in a way where you couldn't take any of it out.

I really loved this. Fantastic sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Medical content, Grief, Ableism, Addiction, Child death, Stalking, Car accident, Colonisation, Death of parent, Racism, and Gun violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Body horror, Confinement, Self harm, Incest, Sexual assault, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Racial slurs, and Suicide attempt

annact's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

5.0

"Jennifer goddamn Daniels," Hardy finally says. 

"It's Jade, sir," Jade says back

Jade Daniels, the woman that you are...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Child death, Torture, Death of parent, Blood, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, Vomit, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Self harm, Sexual assault, Addiction, Gun violence, and Medical content

xennial_reader's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

“Because she’s Jade fucking Daniels. And a thousand men like you can’t even reach up to touch her combat boots” 

Happy Pub day!!
Thank you to netgalley & to Simon & Schuster for the eARC.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it did not disappoint! Although it did very much gross me out 😆 I’m not usually a fan of slashers, but if anyone’s going to get me to read one, it’s Stephen Graham Jones. 

We’re back with our final girl Jade, 4 years down the road, freshly out of prison and most importantly, no longer going by Jade- she’s back to Jennifer. With no place left to go after being released, she has to abandon her dream of escaping her hometown and head back. And this time with a new (to us) serial killer on the loose and the whole town trapped in with him during a blizzard, of course.

This story goes off like a bullet and does not let up. SGJ is a master at weaving emotional depth with horror and social commentary. Jennifer/Jade is such a badass, flawed heroine you love to root for. She’s real, she’s angry, she’s sad and she’s just struggling to stay alive. Age, the forced time away and having been under trial for the past few years has made her much more toned down and self aware. With the escape of Dark Mill South (and possibly other killers in the mix??) it’s once again up to Jade to save her small town. She’s still insisting she’s not the final girl, yet again, even with all the signs she’s willfully ignoring. But, to save who she can, she has to tap into her old self which she’s been trying to forget and repress while she was away. 

The growth of this character and the trauma processing (whether healthy or not) from everyone involved gave this story so much emotion and depth. I loved being back with my favorite final girl in Proofrock and being dragged along (honestly sometimes kicking and screaming it felt like) for this wild ride. 

The only thing that didn’t make this a 5 star read for me was that, while I really liked the multi-POV, I absolute hated having to read the killers’ POV. The gore level was also well past my comfort zone, more so than the first book. 

In any event, I’m simultaneously excited and terrified for the final installment of the Lake Witch trilogy. Stephen Graham Jones has become an auto-buy author for me and I can’t wait for the next one!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Car accident, Child death, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide attempt

Minor: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Child abuse, and Rape

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Animal death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, and Gun violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Drug use, Mental illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Classism, Colonisation, Car accident, Genocide, Pedophilia, Self harm, Addiction, and Fire/Fire injury

starrysteph's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

Oh, yes - this is the continuation that I craved after finishing My Heart is a Chainsaw.

 

We pick up back in Proofrock four years later, where kids have grown up and loss has reshaped the community … but some things never change, do they? There will always be a killer lurking around the corner, ready to hunt down unsuspecting locals.

 

Jade Daniels - who goes by Jennifer now, thank you - is returning to town for the first time since the events of the first book. With this new distance from her home & trauma, Jennifer has reframed her point of view a bit and no longer sees the world exclusively through the lens of slashers (as she once had to for her own protection)  - but that doesn’t mean she’s left her great depth of knowledge behind.

 

And when the power & phone line goes down and a serial killer escapes his convoy … Jennifer & Letha have to team up once more to save their town. 

 

We have a massing scattering of perspectives here, and things aren’t always told in a linear fashion. It’s fascinating but can also feel disjointing - I struggled a bit at times to recall which characters and pieces of information were a continuation from the first and which were brand new. 

 

Jones has such a unique bite and style of writing. It’s gory and horrifying and then unexpectedly emotional - and each narrator’s way of storytelling is distinctive, even those who only get a few paragraphs to shine.

 

However, I did miss Jade. She’s here, and she shines, but the focus is split so much that I was left wanting more from her arc. We’ll see where the third book goes. 

 

The pace is much faster than the first, and I found myself catching breaths alongside the characters’ brief reprieves. There’s more guts and more gore. There’s identical twin mindbenders and chilling scenes with elk and monsters that were painfully human. 

 

There’s a great blend of slasher nods and winks and references alongside horrifyingly creative all-new kills. I’ve seen my fair share of slashers but I’m sure there were also clever & specific references that went right over my head - Jones does a nice job of explaining just enough. 

 

I personally preferred Chainsaw for its deeper emotional story and focus on Jade - but Don’t Fear the Reaper was still a wonderful sequel. And if you found Chainsaw to be too slow … you won’t be disappointed here.

 

CW: murder, death, gore, blood, child death, animal death, animal cruelty, body horror, pedophilia, adult/minor relationship, drug use, abuse, gun violence, self harm, chronic illness, mental illness, medical trauma, cultural appropriation, racism, classism, vomit

 

(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Medical trauma, Self harm, Addiction, Car accident, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, Murder, Pedophilia, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Classism, Grief, and Mental illness