Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

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

6 reviews

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

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

nialiversuch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexism, and Cursing

joareads's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Bit of a mixed bag of a book. A collection of eight haunting wintery tales - it ranges from the old to the new, the bizarre to the creepy.

A Study in Black and White is good, I love the writing style and it kept me interested in the story with its slightly freaky atmosphere (four stars).

Thwaite's Tenant is a little strange but interesting and ends in a satisfying way (three stars).

The Eel Singers is very strange and gets very weird at times but I'm glad with how it ends (three stars).

Lily Wilt gets very dark and weird and I'm not that keen on the story, especially the animal death part (three stars).

The Chillingham Chair is a perfect blend of creepy and entertaining with some great characters - a story I thoroughly enjoyed (five stars).

The Hanging of the Greens is confusing - is there supposed to be a message in the story? Nevertheless is was an eerie read but again, there's animal death (three stars).

Confinement is definitely a creepy one and ends in that open ended way with it being up to you to interpret how it all ends. It focuses on post natal psychosis and is quite startling to read (three stars).

Monster is not the story I would have picked to close the book. I didn't enjoy at all and I think it's not creepy, it's disturbing (one star).

A good book to read close to Halloween as the nights get longer and the days colder - definitely a haunting book!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Violence, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Mental illness, Death, and Confinement