Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Good House by Tananarive Due

5 reviews

shay43geek's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Body horror, Murder, Death, Child death, and Suicide

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Blood, and Sexual content

adiajamille's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Suicide, Sexual assault, Child death, Death, Bullying, Gun violence, Racism, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Rape

danimacuk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, Death, Grief, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Rape, Bullying, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Racism

Minor: Hate crime, Dementia, Drug use, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Alcohol

littlelili1320's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love this book  I wasn't expecting the ending, It is a bit slow at times, but it reminds me of Stephen King where he tends to have parts that drag but if it was cut you wouldn't know the characters nearly as well. It also reminds me of King because some repetition could have been cut lol.  I would have liked more of Marie's timeline, but overall the timeline & character jumping was enjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, Grief, Death of parent, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Addiction, and Racial slurs

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

evavroslin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

If you haven't read "The Good House" by Tananarive Due, though it was released originally in 2004, I urge readers to pick up a copy STAT. It is Black horror from one of the most brilliant voices in the field, as well as a professor who teaches Black horror at UCLA in a course, The Sunken Place. It is so much more than a haunted house story. There are ancestors who reach out to descendants to warn them about family curses and danger, love lost and regained, as well as the tragedy of losing a son in a violent manner. The protagonist, Angela, is dealing with so much overwhelming emotion, trying to get to the root of the circumstances of her son's brutal death, for which she will have to return to the house where it happened, a house she has avoided for the past two years because of extreme trauma. What she finds when she arrives is so much worse than anything she could have imagined. 

Everything about this book is stellar--the incorporation of Haitian vodou in Angela's Toussaint family background, their origins in New Orleans, the signs that pointed her grandmother, Marie, to go to a specific house on the other coast of the country, the family curse, and so much more. The plot kept me turning the pages, feverishly trying to find out what would happen next. There were moments I shouted "No!" when I was reading, and praying for the safety of the main characters. The characterization was excellent, particularly the chapters of Angela's son, Corey, and showing the reader what he was going through mentally when he discovered parts of his family history unknown to him before, what he did with it, the consequences, and so much more. Due also nailed the teenager's dialogue. Angela is a strong woman but she is also fraying at the edges and has been for a long time. Her family's past was hidden from her purposely, as she was kept in the dark, something that comes back to haunt her in a huge way. As she races to discover what she must do to set things right, the plot goes into a frenzy of some of the best horror out there. 

I hope that this work will be adapted as a film or television series, because it is absolutely one of Due's masterpieces in her voluminous body of work. Along with her short story collection, The Good House is my favourite of her amazing works. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Infidelity, Gun violence, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Child death, and Blood