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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.
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
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
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
the_books_music_life's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I think I hyped this book up a little too much and was left disappointed. I didn’t care for any of the characters and while Jane is a very complex character, she reads like an unreliable narrator and I don’t particularly enjoy that trope.
The story follows Jane as she struggles with the recent loss of her father and being forced to leave everything she knew and move to her mother’s hometown, which she knows next to nothing about.
Jane is a very complex character and throughout the book she goes through so much. And a lot of it could have been avoided if people around her actually talked and told the truth about things.
I thought the story would/could go in 1 to 2 ways and it went in neither. The direction it took was confusing and unclear and it didn’t help anything that the ending was very rushed.
If I had to describe this book in one sentence it would be “Gaslighting at it finest.”
The whole ‘mystery’ of the book is dragged on forever and the pay off wasn’t that great in my opinion. The only thing I did enjoy was the depiction of grief that we get to see. Grief is never one emotion, it’s many little emotions that mix and mingle into an even biggest emotion and this book did a great job showing that and the ways Jane dealt with her grief was realistic to me.
I did not care for the haunted house/ghost story element as it was very poorly done and just plain confusing.
The ending of the book is done in an open ending kind of way and it didn’t work for this story.
Most of the ‘side characters’ didn’t even have a point in the story, they were just there as someone for Jane to talk to or as conflict. No one had depth or meaning other than being someone Jane talked to.
Overall I found this book confusing, rushed, and the ending very disappointing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Gaslighting, Cursing, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, and Suicide
Graphic depictions of pica, loss of a sibling, intense depictions of anger issues, underage drinking, forced pregnancy,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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Violence, and Gaslighting
CW for being buried alive, hallucinationsfrantic_vampire's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
What the fuck did I just read 😵💫??!? I can honestly say that Horrid is one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read. And if you know me, you know that horror and scary books really aren’t my thing. I don’t think I would have picked this one for myself if I hadn’t gotten it in a subscription box last year. Horrid is definitely a perfect read for Halloween and spooky season….Just, maybe don’t read it right before going to bed. Unless you want nightmares.
Leno’s work is something that I’ve come to really enjoy and even though this one scared the pants off of me, it’s something that I just couldn’t put down. It’s compulsively readable, and Jane is such an interesting main character. She knew that something wasn’t right with that house. And boy was she right…but nobody would listen.
I honestly don’t know what to say about this book, other then that it’s really fucking scary and really good. Oh! And fact that it ends abruptly! I think that’s probably one of the scariest parts of this book, that it just cuts to black before we get to see the aftermath. Horrid such a great read and I’m giving it solid four stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
sunsetcity's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
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