Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

52 reviews

jasisreading's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

1.5

this book had potential but somewhere between the third act

where mario k*lls brian

and the climax where

mario confronts juanca and ends up dead

, the book went in a direction I don't believe was bulit up thematically.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Gun violence, Child death, and Drug abuse

shiftycow1313's review against another edition

I knew based on the description that this book was going to be dark, but it is DARK DARK DARK. I'll try to pick it up again someday when my head is in a better space.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Racism, Classism, Cursing, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Murder, Torture, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, and Physical abuse

smashingreads's review against another edition

Child death (natural), I can do. Child torture, I cannot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Child death, and Child abuse

gkweav615's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Racism, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit, Terminal illness, Torture, and Drug use

leahrosereads'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Devil Takes You Home was gritty, heart wrenching, disturbing, and so fucking interesting.  It's going to sound weird, but I savored this story, sat with it for days longer than it normally takes me, and still, even as it ended, I wanted more.

Not because this story wasn't told to fruition, because it was, and spectacularly so, but because I'm absolutely unhingedly intrigued by the bits of supernatural we saw.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Racism, Grief, Drug use, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Body horror, Racial slurs, Child abuse, and Confinement

Minor: Transphobia

its_kievan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.0

Well written in parts, but tonally incoherent. Iglesias clearly had something to say, either about race in America or about the cycle of violence, but any move towards capital-T Themes would be abruptly ruined by the awkward horror/crime plot. The narration was weirdly disaffected, including such highlights as a man musing about God’s existence for a hundred pages and then utterly failing to react to unambiguous proof of the supernatural. The plot just existed to shuffle the characters from one location to the next, which I would be totally fine with if the locations didn’t feel like they were also there to move the characters along. There were some genuinely disturbing moments and thought-provoking insights in the mix, and it was a pretty quick read overall, but for such an intense concept and title I was hoping for more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Gore, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Gun violence, and Racism

Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse

Minor: Transphobia

victoriarose12's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gun violence

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

kdwhite's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death, Child abuse, Gore, Violence, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Terminal illness, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Suicide attempt

cberbette's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Drug use, Death, Body horror, Blood, Torture, Drug abuse, Racism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Suicide attempt and Transphobia

ouijabroad's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

I slogged through this one. I feel like this happened for several reasons. The first one being that there’s sooooooooo much fluff before the “action” begins (I use action loosely and I’ll get to that). This book could have easily been a novella in my opinion and summed everything up much faster, however I still don’t think it would’ve been a worthy enough story to tell.

I knew going in that the characters weren’t likable and I’m fine with that. The thing is I didn’t care about them, the story they were telling or what happened to them. The beginning was sad and I had empathy for Mario’s financial struggles and how healthcare is a sick joke, but that’s about all I felt the entire book.

The messed up and sometimes (weirdly and randomly) even supernatural things that happened had no explanation and the violence was purely there to shock the reader. 

The author cannot write women, he is as bad as Stephen king. Any woman is just there to further plot and they're either reduced to their looks and bodies or viewed as a mother figure (or both like Stephanie!).  Also really loves telling us about fat folks because that totally adds to the story. And all the fat folks were objectively bad people. 

I didn’t dig his writing style; This author really likes to use similes at a distracting rate. 

Now, the “action” during the climax: it was such a dud. All this lead up and exposition with so many unexplained happenings, violence and then it’s just over. I can’t believe I spent so long trying to get through this one. I wish I had put this in the DNF pile.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Addiction, Cancer, Cannibalism, Classism, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death