Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Reddening by Adam L.G. Nevill

6 reviews

dezzella's review against another edition

dark 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? No

1.0

Slight spoilers regarding the antagonists, but no specific details.

Read this with my partner to try something outside of our usual genres. Honestly this wasn't for me, I didn't really find myself enjoying it at all, which isn't to say others won't. All the more to you if you loved this book!

 I thought that there was too much description that would last for pages and pages. The amount of time skipping and initial POV changes in the beginning was very disorienting and the main characters aren't introduced until around 15% of the book and I didn't care much for any of the characters. The book dragged most of the time for me, especially when it repeated details/explanations, and only had small parts that would capture my attention. Also, the author uses a lot of imagery of women's bodies throughout the book, which just became so often that it became a little weird. 

I think it would have been cool to see the antagonist chapters interspersed throughout the book instead of suddenly showing up at the end. I also think there was potential for the resolution of the antagonists to go a different way, I felt the way the antagonists were taken care of was a little out of left field.

I can see where the author was trying to hit with this book, a mysterious town along the English coast with a dark secret. That setting has a lot of potential for a horror story, but I honestly think it didn't hit the mark. I think the ending was also rushed and could have been slowed down/expanded in place of some of the middle chapters. I also thought it was odd that certain crucial moments were skipped over and the characters just reflected back on what happened afterwards.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Suicide, Violence, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Cancer

jupitervivienne's review against another edition

dark slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

As a fan of southern gothic, I’ve been wanting to explore folk horror since they feel like sister sub genres. This book was recommended a lot for the genre and, since I enjoyed the film adaptation of The Ritual, I was excited to read this. Unfortunately this wasn’t the right start of this genre for me. The beginning chapters, while quality-wise feeling like a first draft, captivated and horrified me with the initial introduction to the red people. The following chapter detailing the press conference about the cave discoveries also intrigued me and I was ready for more. The story doesn’t really go anywhere particularly interesting with this though, making the threat and horror of the situation fall flat. It also attempts to tie in a bunch of different elements to give a sense of the grand power of the cult, but ends up feeling too random and disconnected. I also felt disappointed by the writing of the two main women Kat and Helene, which again made something initially interesting fall flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Minor: Suicide

rojo25's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Vomit, and Cannibalism

mlvanlancker's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

rotfaced's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This book was... Okay.  His descriptions can be very colorful.  Visceral and graphic at times, it still failed to deliver horror as I was hoping it would. There was a lot of reliance on exposition, especially up front, which dragged the pace down considerably; only half-way into the book did it seem like movement had become a focus, and even then, I wasn't drawn into the events until about 70% of the way through. There is a very poor balance of introspection versus action. Sometimes, there's pages of reflection between a characters movements in-scene. 2 stars because the plot did, eventually, prove to be somewhat entertaining and I was able to finish the book. 

Also-- and this is a big turn off-- I don't like how the author wrote the women in this story. He seems obsessed with pregnancy. No, really-- its a focal point of both of the main characters inner struggle, and

also happens to be a fixture of both the unknown enemies/"creel" and the matriarchal adversary

. Really skeeved me out. 

Please pay attention to the content warnings. While none of these things bothered me outright, I did not mark them as 'graphic' for no reason-- the author spares no expense when it comes to these triggers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Misogyny, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Police brutality

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Drug use, Alcohol, and Colonisation

tieflingkisser's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, Infidelity, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence