Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Horrid by Katrina Leno

18 reviews

leexpenandpages's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

📝 SYNOPSIS:
Struggling with all-consuming rage, Jane North-Robinson feels chilled by more than just the autumn air when she and her mother move to her mother's childhood home, where Jane must dig up her mother's secrets to understand what is happening.
🏚📚🌹🎒🪦👻👩‍👧🎃😭

👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💛 READ IF you've got nothing else, if it works for a reading challenge, etc. 

💬 FAVORITE QUOTES:
• Pg. 201

do books taste like roses?

• Pg. 209-210 (TR: Mental illness, depression)

A flash of the earth with everything destroyed except this house, the last building standing, and Jane within it, trapped inside its walls, not really caring anymore whether she made it out or not.

• Pg. 214 (TR: Mental illness, compulsive behaviors)

She imagined the words dissolving off the paper and sinking into her bloodstream. She imagined her body filled with words. Made up of them. Words instead of blood, words instead of organs.

👓 FORMAT: 
📖

📑 COMMENTS:
•  The main characters are complex and flawed. Jane's friends are heartwarming and supportive.
• Jane is frustrating slow to figure out what happened, leaping to illogical conclusions for the sake of continuing the mystery.
• I mostly agree with the Booklist quote on the back, which reads, "Leno blends Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson for a narrative that ranges from unsettling to genuinely terrifying." (I did not find the narrative terrifying but otherwise agree.)
• The book starts a little too slow, and it ends a little too quickly, but the middle is well-paced.
• Race is poorly represented. Some of the characters seem like they were originally intended to be POCs but were changed to white or the author used POC aesthetics. The black characters are black only in description of skin tone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Bullying, Murder, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Addiction, and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Pregnancy, Animal death, Violence, Self harm, and Cursing

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Blood, and Classism

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Violence

quercine's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

Incredibly unique style and really vivid writing. The setting, atmosphere, and emotions are all very richly detailed, and once things got going I couldn’t stop reading. There are lots of layers to symbolism and metaphors, as well as to the relationships between characters. 

The ending was unexpected and shocking, and left me sort of just staring into the middle distance for a while. I hated it as the conclusion for characters I had grown to love but loved it as a piece of writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Death, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Confinement

tpsebast92's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Animal death, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: Violence and Bullying

jeniwarren's review

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.5

Horrid

By Katrina Leno

This is a YA horror story. It was a fast read. I was immersive and atmospheric. 

Following her father's death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor's doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone.

The character themselves were ok. The story was ok. It was just ok.

3 stars on Goodreads 

3.5 stars on Storygraph 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Violence, and Death

llyrian's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

 This was going to be a 4.5 to 4.75 but the ending was really weird and rushed imo, I didn't like it.

It was beautifully written and atmospheric, and when I get goosebumps and a prickle on the back of my neck from a horror story it really means something,
but I saw the plottwist coming very early on, and the ending, like I said, wasn't great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Violence, and Bullying

Minor: Alcohol

ecn's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I wish there was a bit more to the ending and that the overlaps the MC had with

her sister and how she would seemingly act through her?????

had made more sense? Maybe that’s all there is to it but I wish it was a bit clearer. I also wanted more from the story overall! What happens once the story ends!? The ending also felt SUPER rushed and not fully fleshed out? Also also, it didn’t even feel like Jane herself was fully developed? She was basically just telling us about the grief between 1- feeling rage and 2- eating books. Those are seemingly her only personality traits? I wanted a bit more from her and the story on the overall/continued development. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Grief, and Death of parent

booksofautumn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicide attempt, Violence, Bullying, and Suicide

nickoliver's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the ending, but I generally enjoyed this! The atmosphere was very creepy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Violence, and Gaslighting

CW for being buried alive, hallucinations

nniikkaa's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Violence and Child death

Minor: Suicide