Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

85 reviews

discarded_dust_jacket'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
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I expected to like this book a lot, and I really wanted to. It’s just the sort of creepy, grotesque story that I’m often drawn to.

I couldn’t necessarily tell you exactly why, but the majority of it just didn’t capture my attention. I thought it had a strong beginning but most of what came after felt like a slog.

Not to mention the only non-white character comes across as very one-dimensional, and seems to contribute very little to the plot aside from comedic relief and a backstory that ends up playing a bizarre, almost forced role in the events of the story.

I didn’t absolutely hate it, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it either.

The big twist ending could’ve been handled better. It seemed a bit anti-climactic to just condense all of the explanation for the many questions that had been piling up throughout the entire story into one short, almost clinically matter-of-fact question-and-answer session between Grey and her sisters.

I don’t know it just felt… sloppy. Like the author needed to tie up the many loose ends not answered during the big “aha” moment when it’s discovered the Hollow sisters are changelings, so she just spent a couple pages answering everything else (well, almost everything else; I still have questions) really quick at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Vomit, Bullying, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, and Child death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Animal death, Child death, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Body horror

Moderate: Child abuse, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Sexual content, Alcohol, Mental illness, and Stalking

Minor: Drug use, Drug abuse, and Bullying

wikikapusta's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, and Self harm

Minor: Death of parent, Death, Vomit, Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, and Gore

dovewrites's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

3.5 - 4. The writing is of good quality and I appreciated that the author managed to keep the tone despite the book being set in modern times. This book has an incredible fairy-tale quality and it’s impressive that mentions of social media and the sims 4 did not disrupt that feeling. The explorations of femininity and the grotesque were very compelling and exciting to read in a YA novel. The character building was so interesting, I’ve read that some people feel like Iris is bland

but I think she’s supposed to be, she is so intimately linked to her sisters and especially to Grey- she has no self- until the end, when we see a glimmer of her becoming something more.

My only grips are that the Americanisms did disjoint me a little and If this book is a stand-alone why was the ending written like it’s setting up for a second book? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, Child death, Child abuse, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Self harm

battysbooks's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Bullying, Suicide, Body horror, Blood, Death, and Child death

Minor: Drug use, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Alcohol, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

ericageorge91's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

This book was okay. I liked how dark it got towards the end. That was interesting. 

That being said, I was really annoyed in the beginning and middle. I was intrigued about the story, but the sister codependency was…something else. I also didn’t care for the “Me and my sisters were sooo beautiful. We’re all tall, blonde, and thin, and sooo beautiful. And we have such a huge appetite and eat all the time but are still so tall, skinny, and sooooo beautiful” of it all. That was so boring to me. There is not a single chapter that goes by where their beauty is not mentioned. This book is a constant swing between, “Does Iris want to be her sister or fuck her? News at 11.”

Umm, this book is disgusting. Literally disgusting. You’ll see various descriptions of dead, rotting things that sometimes involves insects. I just…Tender is the Flesh didn’t seem all that bad compared to this 🤢

I’m a little confused about some things. Like, I feel like there were moments when the main character was trying to have her feminist moment like, “Ugh, isn’t it sad how men can be such creeps?!” But then…your sisters literally walk around bewitching, touching, and kissing people without their consents so…..🤨

I’m also a bit confused as to their background story? The other spirits in the Halfway seemed like catatonic and didn’t do shit. Why were they so different? And Grey was just this murder-savvy little girl? What? Are they all older? I just wish that story was developed more. There was so much buildup and I expected more explanation of what tf was happening. 

TW: Attempted kidnapping, bullying, sexual assault (forceful kissing/lip biting), physical abuse (hands on throat, a slap), suicide, drug use, alcoholism, binge eating (in a magical related sense but still), murder, attempted rape, 

Rep: Sapphic MCs (lesbian and bi/pan)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, Body horror, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Animal death, Blood, and Child death

Moderate: Miscarriage, Bullying, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Minor: Physical abuse

nikenacs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

[Book club - November 2022]

Not the biggest fan of this in the beginning, but it really won me over in the end. A tad too YA for my taste, but that's a me problem. Had I read this in my teenage years, I would have been absolutely /obsessed/.

The strong part of this book is definitely the finale, or generally everything that takes place after the hospital. This is where everything that has been laid out before really pays off. The main strong point of the book is that Sutherland is fantastic at describing surroundings, smells, sounds, sensations, all her horrors feel very tangible. The mix between strange natural beauty and body horror worked very well. 

Unfortunately, this strongly descriptive style also felt like one of the main downsides to me. The book is VERY Tell, Don't Show, and I felt like very obvious things were being spelled out for me again and again. I could see most plot points/twists coming a mile away. Maybe this is a YA thing, though, and I really am just a little too old already. The pacing was odd in some places as well.

Overall, it didn't wow me, but it was pretty good. I probably wouldn't have stuck with it if it hadn't been for the book club, but I'm glad I did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Vomit, Death, Violence, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Rape

Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

This is definitely being added to my list of favourite YA books. It’s tense, it’s creepy, it’s engaging, and I loved the depth of worldbuilding.

I do have a couple of complaints. The first is that I felt that we were constantly being told how much of a bond the sisters had without being shown it, especially as both the older sisters leave the youngest behind. Even at the end it felt like we never saw much positive interaction between the sisters as half the time one or more was unconscious or missing. My second complaint is that I found all of the twists very predictable, but this isn’t too much of a complaint as it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abandonment and Gun violence

madisone's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Murder, Blood, Vomit, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

elsea_readingelsea'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
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gore, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Blood