Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

80 reviews

ophielouise's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

book of the year, probably.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Torture, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

mommarex1221's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.5

At 25%, I considered DNFing... but I stuck it out. Halfway through, I was finally starting to come around. Pieces of the story were falling into place and the more of the picture I saw the more and more I was blown away. If there's anything that intrigues you about this, please read on. I promise the pay off is worth it. 
I knew from the first few chapters that what Ward had created was masterfully written, even if I questioned what exactly it was that I was reading. This book will stick with me. 
Triggers galore. Explore at your own risk, some may be considered spoilers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Self harm, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

tati_jurisic's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Self harm, and Gaslighting

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

I'm going to be honest, by the time I was about halfway through this, I was irritated and thought I would hate it by the end. I've maybe never had a book so suddenly change my thoughts on it as this one.

The blurb is very correct. Initially, you think you know what's going on here. Then a couple more times you maybe shift that around some and have an AH-HA! moment, and you think about the blurb, and you tell yourself oh boy they almost got me there. And that's when it changes on you again and you realize you did not in fact have a clue.

It was the second or third little shift that made me think I'd hate this. I had a terrible feeling it was going in a direction that was shocking for the sake of being shocking, and for whatever reason it made me angry. I'm not sure why, because this book is very well written, well fleshed out, with really lifelike characters for the most part. I guess maybe that was the issue, I couldn't reconcile why in the middle of all that, suddenly it would be taking a hard left turn into shock territory somewhat unnecessarily.

I'm happy to say that didn't happen, and I was shook by the time I realized what was really going on and how things linked together, in ways I was completely misled from considering. Color me surprised.

This book is so much more than I thought it was at that point, and it's completely different than what I expected at any point other than the very end. Definitely looking forward to Sundial now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Stalking, Body horror, Child death, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Confinement, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Grief

libraryofdoe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

5.0

How to talk about this book without spoilers? What I can say is it’s absolutely fantastic, harrowing and packs a heavy punch.

The premise is that a woman moves to a street where the man who she believes abducted her younger sister 11 years ago lives. The novel is both about that and absolutely not about that (I know, frustrating when you’re trying to decide whether to read it). I definitely advise reading the trigger warnings and going in somewhat prepared. If you like mental health rep, unreliable narrators and horror that makes you think, this is for you.

I need to reread this ASAP, knowing what was going on, so that I can pick out the inner and outer world parts. I will also be looking for reviews from people with DID to see how well the novel portrays it, as while I have a trauma-based dissociative disorder and have engaged previously with a lot of the content listed in the bibliography, I don’t have any form of DID and I therefore can’t speak on the representation. To me, it was fantastic and so, so sad. Amazing to see a novel use characters with these disorders and not have them be a villain. I feel this book really encourages the reader to question their worldview and view on mental health, and the afterword has me sobbing even now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Homophobia

mgordon3118's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Vomit, and Violence

archaicrobin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I didn’t know much about this one going into it, just that it was on the Goodreads 2021 horror list and that people were loving it.  I thought it was a haunted house story and it definitely was not that, but I still enjoyed it greatly! I don’t want to say much about it because this is one of those books where the twist is slowly revealed as you go, so you don’t want to know much. 

Because the narrative is so chaotic it was a hard one for me to get into, but once I got a groove going I wanted to keep reading so everything would finally be explained! 

This book does deal with child severe child abuse and severe mental illness, so if that is triggering or upsetting I’d say take that in to consideration before picking it up. With that in mind however, I felt like the author did an excellent job portraying and researching the particular mental illness discussed in the book and she even has a bibliography at the end listing all her resources. I’ve read so many books where mental illness is misrepresented or thrown in as a horror trope for shock value, and it was refreshing to see Catriona Ward show respect and care with this concept. 

I enjoyed this one a lot but it wasn’t quite a 5 star for me. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into thrillers that toe the horror line!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, and Torture

anastasia_raf's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.5

I almost DNFed it. I was reading it by audiobook so I guess that's what saved it. 11hours and a half and only the last 4 were interesting... I wouldn't say it's a horror book, no. I would say physiological thriller describes it best. I guessed some of the plot twists, although they kept unravelling so I wouldn't call it a very predictable book. I do think it's unique. Especially since we get the cat's pov too. I also can appreciate that it's not an easy book to write, I know it took hard work. So it's a solid read for me but not something I would pick up again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Sexism, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Kidnapping

jerusha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Violence

cicimaee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

Very well put together with an admiral attention to detail. The characters were incredibly three dimensional. I finished it in one day.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Child death, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism and Suicide

Minor: Animal death, Lesbophobia, and Fatphobia