Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

19 reviews

traa's review

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Car accident, Child death, Death, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Gore, Stalking, Grief, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gun violence

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Mass/school shootings, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

franknforter's review

dark reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Stalking, Death, Grief, and Mental illness

chloseencounter's review

medium-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

Night of the Mannequins was one of the shortest stories on my TBR so I decided to throw it in to my Halloween reads and this was probably the worst book I’ve read in awhile. I actually really wanted to DNF it but I hate to do that especially to a novel that’s only roughly 140 pages, so I stuck it out and it was all pretty lackluster. 

The description of the book sounds so fun and interesting, I think this could have been a fun teen romp slasher style

but truthfully it was only a psychotic boy’s ramblings. I disliked the main character so much that just having him narrate the book was sort of irritating. Also for a book seemingly advertised as a slasher, every kill was the exact same which isn’t very interesting or fun. I feel like if you’re gonna do it, take it all the way and make it way more gory and ridiculous. If the author did that, I think this could’ve been more enjoyable but mostly it was just boring and for such a short novel, felt repetitive.

 

I wouldn’t recommend this one unless you’re super desperate for a short story, it was mostly unexciting and unremarkable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing and Stalking

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I knew it but I didn’t want to know it. Unforgettable. This one is gonna sit with me for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Grief and Toxic friendship

bookishbutch's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Grief, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Mental illness, and Child death

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Cursing

becca_w_'s review

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, and Vomit

ahumblebard's review

dark fast-paced

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

2.0

It's really hard to discuss this book without getting into the spoilers, but the non-spoilery version is...it's absolutely not what I expected. I came into it sort of expecting a fun monster-movie romp. Spoilers below (SERIOUSLY spoilers below, I cannot stress enough not to click if you plan on reading it and want to be surprised.)

It wasn't that. At all. The story is told from a first-person perspective, in a sort of rambling teenage-boy voice (which makes sense, because he's a teenage boy), and while we're able to follow along with his thought processes, I guess, it was still a let-down for me to get to the end of the story and realize that there wasn't going to be a twist where his delusions turn out to be true. It really just was all in his head. It just made it all so much darker and bleaker that way, because it was all for nothing.

No shade if you really liked this one or anything, but it really wasn't for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Grief and Mental illness

Minor: Vomit and Suicide

magellen's review

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Super quick read that's loads of fun - a pure slasher from SGJ that dips into the supernatural only briefly before twisting your head around backwards with the truth. Reading this after Chainsaw, it's a clear sibling in the best way. SGJ talks about how he is forever pulled to the slasher genre and you can see in the writing he is certainly deeper in conversation with it than other attempts. 
Good heartbreaking slasher. 👍👍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Stalking, and Grief

cheye13's review

dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

I think I took too long to read this one, and the tension slipped right through my fingers. I'm not typically a horror fan, but I didn't find this all that scary. I'd call it more of a psychological thriller.

I did go in without having read the full synopsis, which I think really helped. I quite enjoyed the front half, not seeing a lot of the reveals coming. I really appreciated the nuances within the content: Sawyer is very much an Indigenous teen boy with a very specific experience, but he also has a very Everyman vibe to him. He has parents, friends, hopes, dreams – just like everyone else. It feels like any of his friends could step into his role and the story would be the same, which brings the mannequin concept full circle, imo.

The writing style and voice is very unique; it fits the story so well and is very fun to read. It's very evocative of a film and also a campfire/sleepover story, but still takes moments to use written word to full effect. There are a few sentences that stopped me short to either send a chill down my spine or an ache through my heart.

I think the writing style was spectacular, but the brevity and predictability of the storyline crossed with the universailty of the main perspective didn't really let me sink my claws in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment, Body horror, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts

There is an early line in which Sawyer mentions he "stopped taking his meds" but it is never revisited or explained. Treads a very thin line toward an ableist trope.

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

NIGHT OF THE MANNEQUINS is an absorbing thriller, expertly balanced and engrossing until the last moments. 

Sawyer is a careful but unreliable narrator. He faithfully tells what happened, but his idea of what is literally happening versus what he's merely convinced is happening leaves a lot of very unsettling possibilities open. By the end I settled on an answer, but part of me still thinks the second option is viable. It shook me on a fundamental level and I’m still thinking about it days later. The story is told mostly linearly, and those small deviations from linearity start to add up as Sawyer gradually decides to tell backstory when it becomes necessary (but usually well after it’s first relevant). 

It’s fantastic, I loved every minute! I can’t recommend it highly enough. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Vomit, Violence, Gore, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Racial slurs, Medical content, Ableism, Sexual content, and Car accident

TW for Harry Potter reference (brief).