Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

174 reviews

spaghettii's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Somewhat predictable, did not love the mental health as a plot device but I think it was done with good intentions

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Grief, Violence, Vomit, Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Stalking, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Body horror, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Child death, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Self harm

katreena's review against another edition

mysterious fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Murder, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Torture, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Violence

veelaughtland's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Torture, Death, Physical abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Blood, Alcohol, Suicide, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death of parent

apollo0325's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Just finished but going to come back to this review and maybe adjust star ratings (currently a 3)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Blood, Child death, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism and Medical content

There are a lot of potentially triggering material

including the description of a hanging (suicide), injury/burn descriptions, child abuse, starvation, death, death of a child (dead child's body described), and as a MAJOR PLOT POINT, dissociative identity disorder (I do not have DID so I cannot speak to the authenticity of it - the author's afterword describes her research on DID).

If you're afraid of snakes, one of the narrators has a severe fear of snakes and will constantly describe snakes.

theublein's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book was super confusing and chaotic to follow until the end when everything was tied up very neatly. I typically can see twists of a mystery coming but this story had me guessing till the very end

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Torture, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Grief, Physical abuse, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty

rabidmerk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Minor: Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, and Death

zeldazonks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

It got to a certain point when I was listening to this, that I thought I had it figured out but I was still curious enough to finish and see how everything played out. Well, more fool me, because this book took me completely by surprise on 2 or 3 occasions. Towards the end it was quite tough to get through, so check trigger warnings.

I will also say that I'm not 100% convinced about the mental health representation/portrayal in this. While in the afterword the author does clarify more about the disorder and the research they did into it, the fact of the matter is that you are led to believe a very specific narrative about Ted through most of the novel and while the book does catch you off guard, and challenge the preconceived notions you have about predators and good vs bad people, I just don't think the book carries it off well enough to completely avoid perpetuating stereotypes or harm. This was interesting and quite unique, but I think it almost undermines it's own point in how obviously you're walked down the garden path for the majority of the book. I respect the bold choices - the pov of a cat for example, and

I think I'll be mulling over this one for a little bit, but I don't know that it managed to fully pull off what it was trying to do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Child death, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Animal death, Torture, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Death, Confinement, and Blood

alex_olive's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child death

bellajosephine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It’s so hard to review this book without spoiling it, but if you like tense books with complicated characters and storylines please read this. This is my favourite book or even story I’ve ever heard/read, and I can’t wait to read what else Ward has written. 
This story was so overwhelmingly emotional and beautifully written, there are so many plot twists and reveals, I doubt anyone could accurately predict what will happen. The last 1/3 of the book had me in tears. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Hate crime