Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey

9 reviews

bibliomich's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Listening to the audiobook for Head Like a Hole was *quite* the experience. This book felt like Stranger Things meets Final Destination with a hint of M. Night Shyamalan thrown in at the end. I absolutely flew through the book and then found myself stymied by the last 10%-15%, which I had to rewind and listen to multiple times to truly wrap my head around.

What I enjoyed:
- The exposition was fantastic. It was creepy and gory in all the right ways, and I was excited to see the "true crime podcaster investigating a story" device.
- I liked the nostalgic cult classic 90s/00s horror vibes, particularly throughout the first 2/3 of the book.
- This was a quick read, and I found that I could get lost in the book for long stretches of time without getting bored or distracted.
- Even though there were many characters and different timelines, I found it relatively easy to keep track of them all.
- The narrator, Tom Jordan, did an excellent job.

What didn't quite work for me:
- While several aspects of the book were gory and/or graphic, I didn't find the book to be particularly scary. I would have loved to see Van Wey introduce more elements of psychological horror into the book, as I think this could have really taken the book to the next level.
- The ending was both predictable and also super confusing. Too much happened right at the end, and a lot of it wasn't particularly clear. While I think this was probably intentional in a you-can-interpret-this-however-you-want sort of way, I mostly found it to be a disappointing resolution.
- The book suffered from not having a clear narrator. It was initially framed as though the protagonist were telling the story to the interviewer, but the narration was actually third-person omniscient and jumped around between multiple different characters. At the end you're left wondering if the narrator was a reliable narrator, but that doesn't really make sense because the story was being told *about* the characters, rather than truly from the point of view of the characters.

I would still consider reading more Andrew Van Wey, especially another book narrated by Tom Jordan.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Car accident, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Racism and Drug use

waverlyn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Minor: Gore

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Some of the scares in this had real promise but overall this book annoyed me. The podcast setup felt pointless (half the chapters could not have been told by the character as they're presented to us or Anwar's reactions make no sense) and the "twist" partway through was ridiculous. Very few of the characters were really interesting enough to make the things that happened to them land. In the end a lot of this book was boring and the rest made me angry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Racism, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Xenophobia, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Mental illness

Minor: Emotional abuse, Cancer, Child death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Drug use, and Gun violence

shadowspinner's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Animal death

Minor: Racism and Sexual content

haleybre's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Infidelity, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gore, Body horror, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Cannibalism, Child death, and Cancer

booksofautumn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Medical content, Cancer, Alcohol, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

rachelcg's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, and Blood

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Infidelity, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Gun violence, Stalking, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Gore, Mental illness, Cursing, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Racism, Self harm, Vomit, Terminal illness, and Violence

kermit_the_wrong's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

Unexpectedly brutal! I loved the body horror and all the crazy violence. It didn't go over the top, it was just right. Really had fun with this one and found it to be really unique. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Torture, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Murder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Racism, Cancer, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, and Stalking