Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Haunting Season: Eight Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights by Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Elizabeth Macneal, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Bridget Collins, Laura Purcell, Natasha Pulley

12 reviews

stephanieanneauthor's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.5

Not only is this one of the prettiest books in my collection, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I was hooked right from the first page. 

As the collection is meant to reference the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories during the Christmas season, all of the stories had a delightfully gothic feel. In fact, some were so well written in that classical style I'm used to reading in older books that I had to double check that the author was from this time period and not from the past.

The only story that didn't quite fit was "The Eel Dancers". I liked it, but it stood out from the rest (and not necessarily in a good way). The tone and style of that story did not match the other stories in the collection.

Picking a favourite story is a tough choice, but at the time I'm writing this I think I have to go with "Confinement" because of its exploration of postpartum depression/psychosis. The more I delve into the world of horror - and the more I learn about the human body - the more I've come to realize that pregnancy, childbirth, and all related conditions terrify me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Death, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

nadia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

4.0

A solid collection of spooky, eerie stories. I had a lot of fun with this collection. Looking back at the contents page I remember each of the stories from the title, which is a great sign!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Child death, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape

chrispybacon's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

A Study in Black and White ⭐️⭐️
A solid venture by Collins into the horror short story, albeit a bit lackluster.

Thwaite's Tenant⭐️⭐️
The ending was a pleasant surprise

The Eel Singers 0
Trash. Pulley could at least have tried to come up with a story that doesn't require to know her other novels. Made no sense and I hated every page of it. This is the only story where the hauntings had no impact on the characters and I hated it.

Lily Wilt ⭐️
Bad pacing. Funny idea badly executed. 

The Chillingham Chair⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
By times unintentionally funny, predictable but overall well written.

The Hanging of the Greens ⭐️
Bland, the flashback/ pulling the Protagonist along in visions trope is so annoying and uncreative. 

Confinement ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pretty good pregnancy & post-partum trauma depiction.

Monster 0
stop👏apologizing👏rapists'👏behaviour👏 No kidding. The author seems to have been aware of the protagonist being awful but still tried to find apologies for him. Cringe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Medical content, Sexual assault, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Grief, Body shaming, Child death, and Misogyny

heather_freshparchment's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Animal death, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit

maxineee's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

Should’ve read the content warnings before I read this one. I should have dnf’d it. Besides the focus on very real issues, the writing was very dry and uncomfortable. Usually with anthologies like this I can’t generalize the book as a whole but I can with this one. Especially Monster, which was the most difficult to get through. Now I know not to read anything by these authors. I understand some people enjoyed the book but it just wasn’t the horror that I like. I went in expecting a Cabinet of Curiosities type of book but that is not what it was. This is likely going to put me off of the genre for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, and Rape

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Death, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

cabbagecakes's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Child death, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Addiction, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Animal cruelty, Suicide, and Alcoholism

venomousmushrooms's review against another edition

dark mysterious

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

3.0

All of the stories were well written, the horror aspect was subtle, the most horrifying aspects were how many of the main characters (especially the women) were treated.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Mental illness, Death, Child death, and Sexism

Minor: Domestic abuse

caidyn's review

dark 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This short story anthology is definitely after the tradition of Henry James. Quiet horror that builds and you can almost miss it. My top three stories were, in no particular order, were Lily Wilt, Confinement, and Monster.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Sexism, and Mental illness

spacecadelliot's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

starsreside's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, and Misogyny