Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Southern Gothic - Das Grauen wohnt nebenan by Grady Hendrix

496 reviews

quercine's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was really tough for me to read and if you are a person who might need to be aware of things before hand, please read content warnings. I would absolutely never recommend it to anyone who is not prepared to a) read not only gore but every day life disturbing content and b) really think about how this book turns Dracula on its head in terms of what a vampire represents in culture.

In Dracula, the monster related horror is just a symbol for xenophobia. In this book, the monster related horror is a symbol for how you can let someone into your lives and neighborhood and that person can truly be a person in your community. Except they have unnatural urges that harm your children and “Uncle James” is actually a predator.

This book tackles a lot of real world issues such as misogyny and racism, and how white women can suffer from misogyny but still perpetuate racism. This book also tackles the reality that people of color face in the under reporting, under investigating etc of crimes against them. I absolutely urge you to read with caution if that’s not something you want to engage with. The racism in the world of the 90s era southern US is vibrant on the page.

I’m used to vampire feeding as a symbol for

sex and sexual assault.

I wasn’t entirely prepared for the way this vampire feeds to essentially BE

child sexual assault and for how he would create a new vampire to be rape.

It was shocking, and I stewed for a long time on whether or not I think

Slick’s rape or even Destiny and Korey’s grooming and assault

were necessary (especially so explicitly). Ultimately, I think because this vampire tale is about

letting someone you trust near your community and that trust being betrayed, it fits and it isn’t another example of a male writer using that kind of violence as shock value. But as a survivor myself, it was very difficult.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide, Dementia, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

space__squid's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

 Maybe the real vampire was the white supremacist patriarchy we realized we made and upheld along the way <3

Would have given 5 stars if I wasn’t a bit iffy about the story being told from a white perspective – it’s a great story, I highly recommend it, especially if you like your horror with a fair bit of rage and social commentary, but as with many other stories it centres white people’s experiences of racialized violence rather than the people who are the victims of it.  

That said, I can't remember when I was last this engrossed in a book or this angry and invested while reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Sexism

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide

nokchimbird's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The first third was great, but it fell off pretty quickly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

sydbenda's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Murder

snarkycrafter's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

2.75

There were elements of this book that were good and enjoyable for me, too many things irked me for me to give it a higher rating. 

I found none of the characters likable, and I recognize that the author may have written them this way on purpose, but it was still hard to read a book without liking any of the characters. 

The female characters all played into a “trad wife” narrative/stereotype which grated on me. They all seemed bored and unhappy, they were all being mistreated, gaslit, and/or abused by their husbands, and continuously accepted their husbands’ views and opinions as their own. I understand that this is a sad and difficult reality for many women, but it didn’t make it easier to read about in the way it was portrayed in this book. 

The fact that he preyed on the poor community of color first…and (most of) the white women refused to help until it directly affected them. That was very much “on the nose”. 

There were parts that were very enjoyable but others that were painful and cringey to read through. If someone were to ask me if they should read it, I’d say to give it a shot, but I wouldn’t recommend it as someone’s next read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

miilk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.25

I love it when the vampires are truly monstrous in every way. And I loved reading about all of the women and their lives and their faults and their struggles and and and bc everything with them was GREAT. Also Patricia is such an excellent protagonist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

emmieanna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

I am so glad to say that this book is about more than just vampires. It’s about women who will do anything for their families, about sticking up for themselves and what they know to be true. It’s about getting in, getting out, about solidarity and shame. 

There is not one man in this book that observed anything about their wives. They blindly accept anything as long as a man tells them it is so and honestly they deserved everything that happened to them. 

Infuriatingly, Patricia never received the recognition she deserved for sticking to her beliefs even when everyone turned their backs. The gaslighting from her husband and friends who were meek astonish and she deserves better from everyone. Such is the life of a housewife.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Dementia, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Physical abuse

tsalagitiffany's review against another edition

Unnecessarily disgusting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Rape, and Sexual violence

kgpierce's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Interesting, fun read that kept me locked in till the end. I like how Hendrix really commits to the perspective of the protagonist in his novels, drastically shifting the protagonist’s positionality between stories and yet it always seems as though he is so familiar with that particular life experience that it is his own. It speaks to his deep familiarity with the region and timeframe (SC in the 80s/90s) in which he sets his books. He’s also, as always, extraordinary at creating a captivating nostalgic world of the pre-Y2K southeastern United States.

One critique I have of this book is how one dimensional the only POC character is. I know there’s intention to properly depict the social reality of the white, middle-aged protagonist in this setting, but the one Black character is given this random bizarre character trait that is left unexplored unlike the traits of the other white women in the book. Throughout the novel I felt she was left as a glaringly one dimensional character in contrast to all the other well fleshed out white characters. Which again could’ve been an intentional immersive tactic on behalf of the author in order to truly convey how the protagonist’s worldview does not allow for BIPOC to be seen as more than one dimensional, but if that were the case I feel the author could’ve done a better job of conveying that throughout the course of the story opposed to simply reproducing the age old racist trope of the 1 dimensional Black character amidst a strong cast of complex white characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Racism, and Stalking

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad 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

4.25

Much better than I thought it was going to be, mostly because I found the title so ridiculous. Turns out that the book was a lot of fun to read and that the title is very apropos. It was a little longer than I would’ve liked - I would’ve removed some of the events, maybe even whole chapters, because the first third of the book had me rolling my eyes. But I had enjoyed How to Sell a Haunted House, so I stuck with it, and I’m so glad I did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism