Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry

6 reviews

priscillarobock's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Death of parent, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Child abuse, Child death, and Violence

bearbookshelf's review

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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

3.25

While perhaps intended as a spooky autumnal read in agreement with Washington Irvine's original tale, this book was the perfect start to the new year both in its thematic range and the excitement it generates to push forward through the pages, goading the reader to race ahead of the chill crawling down their spine. Set decades after the chasing off of Ichabod Crane by Brom Bones' invented tale of the headless horseman, the tale is executed through the gaze of 14 year-old canonically trans character Ben. Ben is the son of Brom's son Benedix, who was mysteriously slain and left mutilated in the woods of Sleepy Hollow when Ben was just a baby. When a boy Ben's age is discovered in the woods mutilated just as his father, rumours begin to broil around the superstitious town of Sleepy Hollow, mixing the murder with mention of the Headless Horseman. In pursuit of the truth, Ben seeks to peel back the layers of superstition only to uncover the supernatural, and unknowingly sets himself on a quest of self-definition and discovery.

A trans reading by a trans reader:

The reviews of this book seem by and large to gloss over the queer representation. However, to me, this seems an essential component of the text and potential greater meanings. Featuring a canonically trans main-character, the book's main themes of lineage and inheritance, nature versus nurture, conscious self-creation, and the true meaning of love as rooted in not only tolerance but acceptance, take on a greater purpose and message most fully incapsulated in the thrilling conclusion that sees the ultimate rejection and defeat of long standing oppression and a symbol of the accepted unsavoury ways of the world. However, this progression can be tracked throughout in both the invention of the Horseman- a focal point of Ben's self-creation and self image- and the movement of Sleepy Hollow itself. It seems to me that so much more interest lies in this books pages beyond the continuation of a spooky tale or the goose-flesh and knotted stomach we feel as we read it. The nightmare of Sleepy Hollow takes on the qualities and movements of the search for self-definition that Ben's trans identity draws poignant attention to; more specifically, the monstrous nature often assigned to trans characters and foisted upon trans individuals themselves is taken on and shirked off simultaneously as the monster becomes the man and the man becomes the hero of his own story.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Transphobia

Moderate: Pedophilia, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

Minor: Rape and Cursing

ceilisbookshelf's review

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual harassment

lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

Don't know why exactly this book didn't quite work for me. I think I expected more of a horror and got more of a fantasy mystery. Still enjoyed it overall, just think it wasn't quite what I was after. The weird time jump also kind of threw me and fell a little disjointed but that definitely could just be me

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Blood, Child death, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

citymouse's review

5.0

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Kidnapping

richboden's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

Full of plot holes and doesn’t make sense in a number of places. Final denouement seems rushed and not properly thought out or planned which is sad as the story builds relatively well to start with.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Transphobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Murder, Dementia, and Alcoholism