Reviews tagging 'Death'

Southern Gothic - Das Grauen wohnt nebenan by Grady Hendrix

525 reviews

kayla_kamldecker's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

This book cleverly combined horror, suspense, humor, and social commentary. I was surprised to learn that the author is a white man as this book directly addresses the way white people dismiss and take advantage of black people, the way men dismiss and take advantage of women, and the way money rules all. 

Unfortunately the first half of the book was incredibly slow and difficult for me to get through. The book picked up more around the 60% mark. The pacing was uneven, and many scemes/chapters were superfluous. This might be a good book to study in an English class or discuss in a book club, but I likely will not read it again. 

I think this book would be excellent adapted to the big screen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Child death, Dementia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Minor: Pedophilia

jenn_amanda's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Addiction, Misogyny, Murder, Child death, Gore, Classism, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Physical abuse, and Suicide

fiona_farrell's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Gore, Rape, Death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Dementia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Animal death and Abortion

kates_books's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is definitely horror. To be fair, it is clearly labeled as such, but I was still shocked by the graphic gore and terrible scenes. I maybe would have liked a trigger warning on the first page about the level of gore and rape scenes. Despite my struggle to read the horror, I really enjoyed the book. It was a compelling read that touched on feminism, class, racism, and community. I also loved the deep dive to the vampire genre - loved that the entry point and the research the book club did was reading vampire books. Also loved the setting in South Carolina - it felt like being in a true Southern home. 

I loved that Patricia got a divorce in the end! Her husband was so condescending and absent and didn't value her at all. When he said something about her having time to do something because she's just a housewife - my blood was boiling! The only part of the ending I didn't like was that Slick died from her rape injuries - so sad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Cannibalism, Death, Domestic abuse, Dementia, and Gore

sarah_bettina's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Violence, Suicide, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic relationship

meganparsec's review against another edition

sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Sexual violence, Violence, Animal death, Dementia, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Rape

meganadams2244's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

0.25

Literally so gross. At the beginning, i was a little bored and cringed out, the middle was ok, then the ending was so discusting and i could not read it anymore.

I dont understand why he had to make james harris suck peoples blood through their inner thigh in a very sectual way abd describe it as being euphoric for the victim, especially because he always goes after kids, like thats so fucking discusting and does not need to be in a book.

without the gross parts and the ending, i could have given it a better rating but i can not give a book with such a horendus premus a rating better than the lowest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, Rape, Body horror, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Child death, Animal cruelty, Gore, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

hooligan_kt's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

I found this book by browsing the immediately available audiobooks at the library, and thought that it was going to be mostly humorous and fun. Oops, there was actually a lot of gore and some pretty dark stuff, it's more of a horror book than anything else. There were also too many creepy, misogynistic, sexual scenes. I don't know how the author intended the book club women to come across, but I'd say they were around 20% believable interesting characters and 80% overblown male fantasy/puppet characters - and that's a generous breakdown. Overall I think maybe this book was trying to be too many things at once. Is it a horror story? A commentary on gender relations? A commentary on racism? A story about female friendships? Satiric? Funny? Disturbing? I think it would have been a more enjoyable book if it had picked one or two lanes and stayed there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Rape, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, and Domestic abuse

ursimae's review against another edition

This book is a 1.5/5 stars.

The premise is sounds so good, but the execution was terrible. It's so bad that I dont think I'll even try reading another book by this author.
It's laughable that this book was supposedly written as like a love letter to his mom considering what happens in it.

Sorry for the rant, but I can't with this book.
Let me list out a few of the transgressions:

• Weak writing. Outside of the horror scenes, the prose felt sloppy.
• So many racist stereotypes. The only reoccurring black character is given the "mammy" role. The next mention of other POC are shown as servants to the rich white people of the town during parties. From there, the stereotypes just continue. At points, it seemed like Grady was opening good dialogue on how racism impacts black communities in regards to their valid concerns being downplayed and ignored. However, he kept dropping the ball with it. It's like he placed the talking point in front of us then swept it aside before we could fully digest it and have a meaningful talk.
• Why the hell does the son love Nazis? The kid is obsessed and idolizes them. It literally plays no part in the story. Why'd you add that Grady? It wasn't necessary. Why you keep bringing up Nazis. Also, why was the MC totally cool about it? Huh? Grady, why was everyone okay with Nazis? It wasn't plot relevant.
• SO MUCH GASLIGHTING. Omfg, it made me want to rip out my hair. 
• Hey, Grady...why did you write about the MC gaining 11 lbs as if she gained 200????? You just threw that part in there for what?
• Hey Grady... What's with the graphic retelling of a rape scene? Why?
• Hey.... Grady... Why did you have to include so many child sexual assault scenes... Story would've been totally cool without that. Really wasn't necessary.
• The MC attempts suicide and its treated by everyone (even the MC) like some petty "fuck you" to her husband.
• Also, there's just a lot of domestic abuse.
• I was 64% through when I DNFed and literally, never once was there a part about women becoming empowered and badass, taking on vampires. It was just 7+ hours (audiobook listener here) of a woman being severely abused.
• Not one character is likeable.
• All the other women in this book are just misogynistic stereotypes. None of them have any actual depth of character and feel very flat.
• The biggest horror wasn't the vampire stuff, but the husband, omfg they were the real villains.
• apparently at the end, she only gets a divorce from this dude... I feel like she should get to kill her husband for the shit he did to her. Also, none of the other women get to fix their abusive relationships?

There is probably more than I could say, but I've ranted about this long enough.
There is very important commentary to be had with the topics of this book that would be awesome to explore further, but it only comes across as 400+ pages of women being repeatedly abused, racist, sexist, and outright terrible characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Body horror, Blood, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Self harm, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Bullying, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

theraindiary's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, Murder, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Blood