Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

123 reviews

twirl's review against another edition

mysterious tense 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? Yes

1.0

The pacing felt really slow, with a lack of balance between dialogue (either none for pages and pages or monologues) and very detailed descriptions. The characters that felt cliche and hard to root for. I felt like both the narrator withholding  information and the details so heavily eluding to information made it so that nothing felt surprising.

I would instead like to recommend Wilder Girls, which had more intrigue, cooler body horror, and more elements of queerness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Body horror, Murder, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Stalking

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

3.5

I never knew where the plot was going next. Confusing, intriguing, different to anything else I’ve read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Self harm, Stalking, Vomit, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Minor: Blood, Drug use, Gore, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

I like weird books and I cannot lie. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Alcohol, Torture, Grief, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Suicide, and Kidnapping

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Self harm, Stalking, Animal death, and Child death

cturn's review against another edition

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? Yes

3.0

Characters - 8
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 7
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 7
CAWPILE score - 6.7

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Suicide, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug use, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Sexual assault

dcnireads's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Stalking, Bullying, and Vomit

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal death, and Drug use

bloomingrose92's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

While horror isn't really my thing, this book was incredibly well written. I particularly liked the descriptions that Sutherland gave. They provided a strong sense of rotting darkness throughout the book with novel phrases I'd never heard before.

And the twist of them not be chased by something that hides in the dark, but being the thing that hides in the dark was excellent. That they killed the three little Hollow girls, stole their bodies, then left them, unburied, as they took over the Hollow sisters' lives. I especially liked the line that Grey called out to the Hollow sisters for help, and they listened, because Grey was a little girl too. And the masked killer haunting them is actually the Hollow's father, coerced by their unholy magic to suicide, and refusing to pass on so that he can finally bring down his children's killers? Chef's kiss. I loved the detail of him finding his children's discarded bodies in the Halfway place, and making graves for them to finally rest. I have a particular fondness for protagonists putting everything they have into fighting a big bad, just to find out that they were the bad they were fighting. And the characterization of our protagonist in this book as a mousy bookworm who just wants to escape the weirdness of her past adds to the twist.

A well-written book, with unlikeable characters that only adds to the ultimate payoff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Torture, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault

aseel_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. This was super eerie and creepy and even with all the vibes, the plot actually managed to close itself properly, which is really impressive 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gore, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Child abuse, Suicide, Stalking, Death, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death

bzliz'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? Yes

4.5

Big trigger warning for body horror.

Ten years ago, Iris and her two sisters went missing for a month. Now her eldest sister Grey is missing again and has left clues for Iris and Vivi to be able to find her- or her body- because something from their forgotten past is coming back to haunt them. 

The only reason I can’t give this five stars is because of how easily I was able to predict the two major twists. The imagery was so beautiful and disgusting that I could really feel Iris’ fascination, obsession & revulsion. My favorite character ending up being Cate. Although she is a deeply flawed, haunted woman, I came to understand her controlling tendencies and her big heart. I’m not a mother but I believe only a mother could climb a mountain of trauma and still find love on the other side. 

I spent several hours after I finished this book thinking about it and how I would rate and review it. It’s been a while since I needed to sit with something for a while to gather my thoughts, which is a point in its favor. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Vomit, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Eating disorder

I’ve tagged eating disorder as a potential content warning. Although the behavior is caused by a different condition, the Hollow sisters (get it?) do engage in binge eating behaviors. Their continued description of being thin in defiance of how many calories they must consume daily could be triggering for someone struggling with their own disordered eating.

klmreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Vomit, Death of parent, Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Body horror, and Child abuse

Minor: Alcohol

tessvosper's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Stalking, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Grief, Death, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Gaslighting, and Child death

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Rape, and Alcoholism