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heartofhorrors's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Drug use, Torture, and Trafficking
ellekiriel's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Toxic relationship
joy_ong's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Grief, and Miscarriage
reggiethebird's review
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Animal death, Confinement, Death, and Trafficking
Moderate: Trafficking, Bullying, Gun violence, Self harm, and Vomit
the_tea_collector22's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.75
I think the concept was there, but the pacing was so slow and drawn out rather than punchy- if it was a more complicated storyline and punchy I think I would have liked it more.
Also kind of wish the small cliff hanger at the end was given more resolution, but I also understand that being a stylistic choice.
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Miscarriage, Abandonment, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse
leahopkins's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The characters are all very fleshed out and layered, they are all pretty unlikable (except maybe Mia), and literally none of them are good people. Still, you can understand why they do the shit they do (to some extent at least), so that made me hate them less.
There are so many themes/images used again throughout the story (mirrors, maggots, clocks) which made the whole writing very cohesive. The author was also very good at leaving small clues everywhere (especially in the Arrowood chapters), but mixing them up with red herrings. I was so captured, putting tabs on everything I thought was important to the plot, and writing down all my new theories. Most of them were wrong. But I loved going through all of my notes again and understanding what they were really alluding to.
Most of the twists were very surprising, but made so much sense at the same time (I said "ohhhh" way too many times). The only twist I really didn't like was the last one (
PS: please note the content warnings because there are a lot!!
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Miscarriage, Infidelity, and Mental illness
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Panic attacks/disorders
jinjejik's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
otherwise, the story had some interesting concepts and of course Ward's twists and turns. always like a book that keeps me wondering and guessing. I feel like the author really does not like dogs lol and i almost had to put the book down. it also has a v open ending, like in the middle of a scene.
notes/thoughts I took while reading:
mia is experimenting on the dogs to remove bad/angry/vicious genes activated by suffering and terror.
I'm sure this is for Jack/whatever runs in their family to make them see the pale ones who make them do bad things. that is different from the dogs tho, how is that research supposed to translate?
what suffering has Jack/Callie endured to activate their genes? why only the oldest daughters? esp when Rob has endured significant suffering. I doubt the mad dogs have a supernatural element to their madness, at least it doesn't seem that way.
Rob and Jack's mom died when they were 4. was she sacrificed? did she have the ailment? it's weird she's from Britain, how will that play in? an English curse lol her being from a wealthy English family. I can't figure out the dad..seems like he's just a white American hippie? while Mia is Black from the South.
similar to the last house on needless street with family curses that make you hurt people. both books take place in US, but curses come from Europe (England and Italy). Last House takes place is wooded Washington, opposite from the California desert. same coast
"I dont know how to get out've situations I don't like."
all the shit about england was made up! Jack made up memories of mom. Falcon and Mia adopted them from psycho meth heads Lena/JACKlyn and Bert/ROBert. (we don't know how the twins ended up with the meth heads and I'm still unclear on why they wanted so many kids just to torture em..unless pale voices told them to??)
theory: they adopted the twins because of something in their blood, like the dogs
( WRONG! the twins were adopted first. Rob tried to kill Jack with a screwdriver and strangle Mia with wire...so Mia began experimenting on dogs in an attempt to "fix" / "save" / change the twins )
"I mistake intensity for passion"
Rob and Jack go from oneness and total understanding to basing life choices off of how much it will hurt the other. (we learn that this is intentional on Jack's part, her way of protecting Rob is to get Rob to leave)
I thought Jack was gonna be sacrificed, but I'm pretty sure she ODs. they still haven't explained why she couldn't leave sundial. (wrong again lol jack couldn't leave because the click stopped working on her)
they're both pregnant by Irving?? I should've seen that coming.
book starts off being mostly about Rob and Callie then becomes mostly about Rob and Jack.
Rob admits she'll continue to do drugs/heroin? while pregnant. (it's the only thing that helps since the click didn't work on her) the "puppy" farm was eventually taken over by drug dealers, that's where Pawel got the goods for him and Rob. I guess he'd had the click too.
pale Callie is real?! Rob had a miscarriage due to Jack beating her.
where does Rob get the money to buy truckloads of shit for Jack's baby?
jack gets one chapter like Marx got one chapter
Rob is dumb af to try to trick Callie..I don't understand why she wanted to lock callie in her room. I understand she's debating on whether or not to give her the last click.
after everything is out to Callie and she's locked Rob in her room:
pale Callie says "which one of them is she, Jack or Rob?" I don't get this. why does pale Callie visit but pale jack doesn't?
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Murder, Child death, and Death
thetinybookworm's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Murder, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Child death and Child abuse
readingtomydogs's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Murder
Moderate: Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, and Gore
elle_e_d_light's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
If I had to categorize this book, I'd say it best fits into Psychological Horror. Emphasis on the "horror". I won't say I enjoyed reading it—I hate animal cruelty—but I thought it was very well written and very good for the genre. I think I liked "Little Eve" a bit more than this, but that's because I loved the more gothic feel of it. I can't decide if I think this one is slightly better written. I liked "Little Eve" and "Sundial" far more than "Last House on Needless Street", which I didn't much care for. From the other reviews I've seen, it seems to be that the more someone likes "Needless Street", the less they like "Sundial" and vice versa.
While I thought this book was good, it's really not the type of book that one recommends to people. At least not without several content warnings.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug abuse and Medical content
Minor: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, and Trafficking
Part of the plot deals heavily with the MKUltra experiments—specifically the remote controlled dogs part. It was animal cruelty of the highest order. But anyway, the animal cruelty and testing in this book is based off of real-life events.