Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

34 reviews

nishana's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Vomit

emily_mh's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

4.5. I was REALLY pleasantly surprised by this one. It was super spooky and mysterious, and Sutherland's prose was beautiful and descriptive. I loved the focus on the sisters and their relationship. Also, the ending was incredibly satisfying. I will say there was a little too much retrospective monologuing on Iris' part. Also,

the kiss between Tyler and Iris was so unnecessary! It completely undermined Iris' character, who up until this point was completely dedicated to Grey. If she truly was dedicated, she wouldn't have kissed her boyfriend

!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Excrement, Trafficking, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

HP reference. Moderate warnings for loss of a loved one, missing child, drowning, self injury, insects. Minor warnings for stillbirth, internalised misogyny.

sofiasali's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

i loved this book so much more than i thought i would going into it and i think i could read about the hollow sisters for the rest of time 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, and Alcohol

radiocryptid's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

frankiejo's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.75

two words: holy shit.

this was an incredible read that I tore through in less than a week. a definite page turner if there ever was one.

to be honest, the beginning left me a little bit worried. while i very much enjoyed the atmosphere and mood that beginning set, i felt at the start that things were a little overdescribed/overwrought/overdramatic, what have you, and that the exposition was a little heavy-handed and unsubtle, interrupting the narrative to explain what the girls were like as young children, or telling us their personalities, or describing the past reactions to their disappearance. i think the book could have benefited from a chapter or two at the beginning, maybe one showing their disappearance and the immediate aftermath, and the second showing their return and subsequent weirdness? the prologue could still be the same, because it's a brilliant hook, so it would be prologue - flashback - flash-forward - continue as written. i think that would have helped with the sometimes heavy handed exposition.

but these issues either dissapear completely or become negligible in the face of this book's fantastic middle and ending—or, like half the beginning, the middle, and the ending. i don't know, structure points like that are blurry as hell.

i honestly could not tell you if the exposition was poor after the beginning—it certainly seemed like less of an issue to me, but it might have just been so good i completely ignored it. the twist (which i wont spoil) is brilliant. it was perfectly executed. just enough clues and foreshadowing were given that i almost guessed it  (i guessed something kind of similar, i had one major element wrong) but it wasn't obvious, although in hindsight there are definitely enough hints to guess the twist in its entirety, which isn't a bad thing! in fact i think its a good thing.

another thing i like about the twist is that i think the book would still work if you went in already knowing it. i feel like today we act like knowing a spoiler is the worst thing that could ever happen to a reader or viewer, especially with franchises like Marvel not even telling their actors the context for the scene they're doing to avoid them accidentally spoiler their Sacred Movie, but my honest opinion if that if knowing a spoiler ruins your movie's/book's/tv show's rewatch/reread value. and i just put this book down and i already want to reread it to see all the foreshadowing i missed. like go through with a highlighter and everything, haha. so if you already know the twist, don't worry, there is still plenty of value in the book, youll just have a different kind of fun realising all the foreshadowing i may have missed!

also, the ending leaves plenty of room open for a sequel if Sutherland wants to write one, but it's still a satisfying ending if there is no sequel, which is a skill!

all in all, a brilliantly plotted and executed read, with a slightly rocky beginning more than made up for once the ball gets rolling.

rep; bi main character, lesbian major character, gender-nonconforming major characters, korean major character 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Drug use, and Misogyny

moderate nudity, moderate smoking, graphic binge eating, graphic bugs (entomophobia trigger),

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

1.0

This book has a beautiful cover and an interesting premise, but the way it's written is just. Bad. Everything is over-described but using the same few words (I hope you like the word fetid if you're going to read this), plot points happen over and over (Iris and Vivi break into a place belonging to Grey and find a secret of hers three times!), and the plot is predictable. The characters are flat and uninteresting: the sisters are described in the most boring way possible, breathless at their brittle, skinny, fragile whiteness, and the other major character reads like a parody of a British person. There's this weird sexual undertone to the girls’ powers that I couldn't stand. 

There's also a really stupid scene involving a character shooting a man with a shotgun while he's holding two women and somehow both women are unharmed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Stalking, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

cassv933's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I’ve seen this book around a lot for a while but I never really got interested enough to buy it. Until now obviously. This book was an amazing read. I love the unique names and at the end when we find out…. A twist.

omg I LOVE how in the end the sisters were not actually Iris, Grey and Vivi. I love the concept of them using their skin and pretending to be them, however this then makes their “papas” death even sadder cause he was right all along.

. Tyler for me was by far one of the best characters in the book, he made it so much funnier and was such a loveable  character.

TYLER DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER WTF. GABE KILLED HIM AND USED HIS SKIN FOR LIKE 5 MINUTES. HIS DEATH WAS SO POINTLESS. And omg when he found Rosie and started crying and wanted to bring her back- I ALMOST started crying, almost. The emotions felt so real and urgh.

. Some parts of the book I got a bit confused by and because of one thing that happened to one character I had to sadly put my score down but I loved all the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Stalking

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Vomit

allyah's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

aliclare's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

feb_books's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

How has, after reading this book, such a beautiful cover become so creepy to me? This book was dark and eerie. But weirdly beautiful and enchanting to read.

 

At the first 50 pages, I almost DNFing this book because I was just bored reading about Iris describing her sisters over and over again. But after a couple of pages more reading, I was utterly hooked on the fantastic story about the Hollow’s sisters and longing to know the mystery behind their disappearance.

 

The Hollow sister's disappearance has been a mystery for ten years when they vanished right out from under their parents’ watchful gaze on a quiet street in Edinburgh. Then, exactly one month later, they came back to the very same street they were taken from. Naked and carried nothing with them but an antique folding hunting knife with no injuries nor signs of sexual assault. They weren’t dehydrated or malnourished. All three of them bore a fine half-moon incision at the base of their throats, nestled in the crook of their collarbones, that had been stitched closed with silk thread. 

 

After ten years, the mystery will come to the surface. When Grey, the eldest, goes missing again. In an attempt to search for their sister, Iris and Vivi have to figure out the puzzle. But they aren’t the only ones looking for her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism and Bullying