Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Leech by Hiron Ennes

35 reviews

ablanket42's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Physical abuse

Minor: Suicide

quirkydrinkerofink's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Death, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

bea_reads_books's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Medical content, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Child death, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Minor: Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Classism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Torture, and Vomit

liltakeawaygirl's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Infertility, Violence, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Blood, Bullying, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Misogyny

Minor: Colonisation, Grief, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Child death, and Vomit

krhanson68's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

Very dark story. Complicated story with convoluted plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

One thing this book did really well was doing the gothic correctly, I've read too many contemporary gothic books (thinking of like 4) that either just recycled tropes with nothing interesting going for it outside of that, or completely missing the mark where gothic is simply the set dressing of a mansion with candelabras but the story itself didn't seem gothic. So this book understood the assignment. At the beginning I thought for sure this would be 5 stars for me, the ending missed the mark a little for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicide and Infertility

beccalynnfrank's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Truly did not know what to expect at any time, definitely not a happy ending but a realistic one 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, and Emotional abuse

mrkusabi's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, Rape, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Classism, Racism, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

athenian_frog's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

The book can get very slow but when the horror kicks in it’s usually pretty engaging. My main issue is with the lulls in between, especially in the first half of the book.

BUT think there’s some really interesting reflection from the perspective of such a complex organism that Hiron Ennes includes! That and the character of Émile in general were highlights. The story went in a direction I was really not expecting—in a good way—and the ending was pretty rewarding.

Some of the ideas that strengthen the conclusion that I found in the book—like the value of one’s bodily autonomy—could have been better weaved throughout the book but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

PLEASE READ the content warnings below. Thanks! <3

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Violence, Vomit, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

-the baron’s family (whose mansion is where the majority of the book takes place) generally holds pretty misogynistic beliefs of a woman’s role in the family, specifically that they are “responsible” for having children/a son in particular -a female character has a history of miscarrying, makes one or two dark jokes about it -descriptions of medical procedures that might upset readers including: several instances of needle insertion in various places, sedated/paralyzed patients during a procedure, often without consent, the removal of a parasite fragment from the optic nerve post mortem, descriptions of childbirth - suicide is examined as a possible and very plausible reason that a character dies (via scalpel to the throat) -In the latter half of the book it is implied that a character ends up in an emotionally abusive relationship with a member of the barony. The sex they have (very vague) reads very much as coercive/non consensual because of the power the barony holds over the rest of the people living in the chateau. There are moments of physical abuse as well. - at least two characters vomit, and a couple more have something crawl out of their mouth

cadence99's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

A twisty turny fever dream like read. Liked this overall, though the ending felt a bit lackluster and not in keeping with the rest of the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Ableism, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Medical content