Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Southern Gothic - Das Grauen wohnt nebenan by Grady Hendrix

67 reviews

emmmapayne's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

challenging 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

2.75

This is a book full of tediously bland and aggravating characters. All members of the book club turn on each other the second someone perceived better disagrees with them. Especially if it is the husbands. The only reason the book club experiences any success against the vampire is because of Mrs. Greene who embodies the 'magical negro' trope. She is also the only person of color who is a part of the story. You see a few younger people, embodying a gang type behavior in Mrs. Greene's home community. You see a mother of one of the victims immediately lose her child- because she is a Person of Color and her daughter has what turns out to be a telltale mark on her inner thigh. Other POC characters are all victims that died via suicide, save for the one that was presumably murdered due to an interrupted feeding.
Patricia's son spends the majority of the book unhealthily attached to WW2 and Nazism. All he talks about prior to

his mother's suicide attempt

is Hitler and Nietzsche. 
There are 2 notably gory scenes. One involves rats and features dog vs rats violence and also rats snapping at the two people involved like a stereotypical school of piranha. I was not at all pleased to read about the snapping of necks and chunks taken out. The other gory scene is at the end of the book and I won't spoil it. If you can handle the rat scene you will be able to handle this scene too. It is slightly more 'meat processing' than medical. One other scene that is a bit intense is

Slick

recounting her SA by way of the antagonist. 
I did not appreciate how the majority of the victims were children, especially at the reveal that the bite creates a sexual euphoria that leads to addiction. This is described in detail for two characters, one who is an adult and the other who is in their late teens or early twenties. 
Just about all the male characters embodied stereotypes and were as present in the story as they were in their kids' lives. They either drank, beat their wives, had an abusive amount of control over their wives, or gaslit the ever-loving joy out of their wives. 
The book club are all fair-weather friends. The husbands band together to gaslight and call Patricia crazy and despite the proof they had in their hands at the time, all of the rest of the book club agree. Then at the end while four are struggling in the fight against evil one of the others shows up like she is the saving grace, despite doing next to nothing to help for the entire book. By the end all the surviving book club members seem to still be meeting up as if all were normal. There was small implication that something is going on with the dog, Patricia, and her daughter but it may have been meant as a 'some wounds never heal' kind of thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Rape, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Dementia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Several characters are stated to have committed suicide in minor detail. One character attempts, also in minor detail.

addysubtracty's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

This book surprised me! I liked the style more than I expected and felt so viscerally upset with how the main character was treated by her husband and the other men. I really love that the women are such complex characters who aren’t painted as good or bad people, but people who do good or bad things. Grace in particular is shown to be incredibly caring and selfless towards Patricia at some moments while still making decisions that protect her own interests, a luxury of duality not often afforded to secondary female characters.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

apestforwrens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

Grady Hendrix always makes you think with his writing. Sometimes that thought is " I wouldn't have made that narrative decision" and sometimes that thought is "this is a super creative take on the vampire story".
Hendrix is fantastic at pulling you into his main character's head and forcing you to see why they are reacting to their situation the way they are. This is a horror book and contains some potentially upsetting stuff. I'd definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings before starting if you're worried about that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fatphobia

hellokatya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.0

my expectations for this book were pretty low, when i first got it, i read some reviews that weren’t the best, so i put it off for a long time; i’m very glad i read it.
this book was pretty slow for the first 30%, but after it got really good! 
it was hard to put down, kept me wanting more, and was the (more lighthearted, circumstantially) that i needed before fall time!
would highly recommend reading this book - and pushing through the first 30% - but be sure to look at content warnings before!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Stalking, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

readerfromtheblacklagoon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

chloe_catastrophe's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Rape

Minor: Addiction and Drug use

lyndis8377's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

toodeadtoread's review against another edition

I was enjoying this horror wise - until I realised a coming main theme in the story was an ick for me. Which caused me to dnf after checking if this was going to be  prominent throughout.

the husband not believing her, her friends not believing her, her husband being on the side of some stranger and not hers. Just the gaslighting vibes, that I did not enjoy listening to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Dementia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

cuddlygryphon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Dementia

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, and Alcohol