Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Southern Gothic - Das Grauen wohnt nebenan by Grady Hendrix

449 reviews

hckilgour's review against another edition

2.5

So I went in expecting a group of southern ladies kind of being like the Winchester brothers. Nope mostly a bumbling group that bands together because things start affecting them.

This story is slow. But it really does build deep characterization and story.

This book terrified me. Not because of the vampire but because of the men and how they treated the women. And how I saw so much truth in those intersections. How women can be gaslight and told they’re nuts. Yes this was a story set in the 1990s, but even today… some of these men/women rolls persist. As do the mindsets behind them.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Suicide

blueghost's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Death of parent

tiffany_bush's review against another edition

adventurous slow-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

2.5

***May contain spoilers***
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This seemed more like a mystery or drama. The ladies of the book club were all shallow and gossipy. They were all quick to turn on each other and of course their husband's didn't believe them.  There were some areas were I thought the vampire parts were going to grow but fell short. I could have lived without ever reading this book. There was only 1 vampire not mulitple in this book. I can see how the vampire could be used as a symbolism of the true monster that people allow and trust in their lives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

bittie_bee's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Blood, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child death and Suicide

Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

katlynkatt's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death and Racism

Minor: Domestic abuse

lefthandlou's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING

I thought this book was fantastic. Definitely a hard read, especially in certain points, and it had some really gross sections, but what a payoff! The book takes on some heavy themes: racism, the way white communities ignore the suffering of Black communities and they ways they contribute to it, the damage of patriarchal societies and restrictive gender roles. The use of a vampire tale to tell that story was genius, IMO, as is the symbolism of the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death

herelieshenry's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-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

3.5

This book is written very well, does a good job at establishing the atmosphere of dread and discomfort, and also got me invested enough that the conflict was often incredibly frustrating. I do think there is a lot of reasonable criticism of the way this book handles social issues; I have no problem with a book discussing social issues and trying to make a statement, so I don’t think it’s a problem that misogyny and racism are major factors at play in this book, but I do think they could have been handled better, particularly around it starting to tread into white savior territory (though I would call this story failed white saviorism more than anything because

of the conclusion wherein the white women only stop the vampire when he’s moved on to their own children, which I think could have been written more overtly critically too

). Ultimately, I get what Hendrix was trying to do, and the book is well-constructed, but it leaves something to be desired. I’m interested in how the TV adaptation will work with the material and hopefully improve upon it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Gentrification

snslayer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Good but absolutely brutal to read as a woman. Perfectly captures white women at their worst and at their best and the lives we ruin along the way. I had to put it down for a bit in the middle because I was getting so worked up about the husbands. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Toxic friendship

jess_gersh's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

coldheartedbirch's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

i was expecting dark and gorey, but lovable moms fighting evil. what i got was actually one of the worst books i’ve read in years with ZERO likable characters. there’s really only one successful creepy/scary moment (aside from how their husbands treat them) as he’s prone to extremely overdone and campy horror scenes that were more laughable than anything. 

rampant sexism, crazy slow book into a way-too-fast, terrible wrap up, lots of things that make no sense, just not good. read Anything else. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Antisemitism