Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

14 reviews

jdesk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

this book made me feel so many things. i very much disliked the protagonist and it was really something to watch the character development throughout the journey that they experience. Hill’s take on the dead haunting the living is so interesting and different. it isn’t often that i’m completely satisfied with the ending of books, but this one was great and i couldn’t have imagined a better end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Suicide, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Death, and Child abuse

booksof_fern's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, and Self harm

Moderate: Car accident, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence

podanotherjessi's review against another edition

I have really, really loved some of Hill's more modern work. The Locke & Key graphic novels are amazing, and NOS4A2 single-handidly made me give the Horror genre another try after several disappointments. So imagine my absolute dismay to find this book to be just so awful.
Let me start with a positive. This book is genuinely creepy and unsettling. I won't say scary, but it did make my skin crawl. But... that's it. That's the one good thing I found in this book.
This book sensationalizes depression and self harm. It leaned into stereotypes about minorites. The characters were unlikable - which I normally don't mind - but they were also shallowly written. I was rooting for the ghost. And the pace was so fast I just lost interest because who cares where it's going? It felt like it was already there and then chugging along for no reason.
Honestly, I would have given up like 20% earlier if I wasn't reading with a friend. We got to this point before realizing we'd both lost any interest and were just pushing through for the other.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence

caidyn's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

What a quick read. This is a pretty short ghost story book, but one that takes turns I didn't expect. Years ago, I tried to read this and failed because I wasn't into Hill yet. And now I'm getting more into his work. This story follows Jude, an older rock star who has a thing for the occult. He buys a dead man's suit so he can have a ghost, but things don't go as he thought they would. It's a good read and Hill takes after his father (except, he's a bit better at endings so far). He shoves in a lot of tough topics that people deal with and has more modern pop culture references to pick up on. I wish that some things hadn't been included in the book, but it was a good one. The next on my list to try again is definitely Horns since I've tried it a few times and wasn't a fan.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia