Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

11 reviews

idroplungs's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I want to give this book 5 stars so bad, but because of one line I can't.

'third day of forgetting meds' seemed unnecessary and forced to give it a negative mental health connotation that a lot of horror uses and really puts a lot of bad stereotypes about mental health in the minds of the general public. It would have been just as good without it

But otherwise, I read this, albeit short, book in one sitting without stopping, couldn't put it down.

The whole quote of "protagonist doesn't mean good guy just who the story is about" playing out but with Sawyer's perspective making you how people always see themselves as the hero, no matter how hard they have to twist it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Stalking and Animal death

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

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

dark fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, and Body horror

Moderate: Car accident and Gun violence

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

lovelymisanthrope's review

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I picked up this novella because I have enjoyed Stephen Graham Jones in the past and I thought this story sounded intriguing.
"Night of the Mannequins" follows Sawyer, a teenaged boy. Him and his friends decide to play a prank at a local movie theater by smuggling a mannequin in, so they can trick the attendant. It is all fun and games until the mannequin seems to come alive...
I adored this story, and it has become my favorite from Stephen Graham Jones. This may be terse in the length, but it packs a powerful punch, and by the time you finish the story, you begin to question your own understanding of what just happened. I have not stopped thinking about this novella since I finished it.
Sawyer's thought process often made me laugh out loud, which is a nice counterbalance to the brutal content in this story.
I will definitely be picking up more from Stephen Graham Jones in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse

albernikolauras's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

In this book, you follow a group of high schoolers who have decided to play a prank on their friend, starring a mannequin they loved for a whole summer. And then they start to die.

I was not ready for this book. You follow one of the teenagers as the plot progresses, and while it sounds like a cliche slasher, it was so much more. Definitely one to read if you aren't too squeamish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, and Car accident

Moderate: Suicide and Body horror

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

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