Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Good House by Tananarive Due

26 reviews

orizenda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I love books that make me cry :,) fr tho I don’t fully understand everything that happens in this book bc I know like nothing abt Vodou  but yeah. very interesting story. I did get kind of mixed up with some of the characters tho in the middle with the townspeople but that’s ok. I really loved the parts from Corey’s perspective personally (which like made me cry even more I love that boy so much). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Murder, Sexual content, Racial slurs, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Dementia, Suicide, Grief, and Drug use

There are a few instances of mentions of sexual violence/rape, but it’s only ever actually depicted very briefly in one scene, I think.

karenreadsbooks's review against another edition

4.0

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It's rather lengthy, which in some ways is positive (it allows for full development of characters and plot) and some ways is negative (it felt like it was going to end in several places only for yet another terrible thing to happen to the point where I was just ready for it to end). Speaking of the ending, that's the part I wasn't completely satisfied with. I can see thematically why it might end the way it did, but it wasn't quite the way I wanted it to end (though I'm not entirely sure what that way might have been).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Death, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Blood

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

awebofstories's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Blood, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Drug abuse, Animal death, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

seasonedreadings's review

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

Minor: Pedophilia

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

cass_lit's review against another edition

4.25

Buckle up, because this is a long review (for a long book). 

Overall, I really liked this. It was chilly and atmospheric, the perfect amount of haunted house creepy in my opinion. As much as I wanted to keep reading, I’d have to put it away at night because I didn’t want to risk nightmares. It’s a long book — 600 pages/22 hours — but I never felt like it was dragging. There were a few points where I’d wonder how we had so much left when it felt like we were so close to figuring it out, but then another twist would appear and I’d forget I’d questioned anything. I loved the twists too; they never felt forced or too unbelievable and they kept me on my toes the whole time. I loved the haunted house, I loved the underlying voodoo aspects, and I loved rooting for Angie and her family. I was shocked from the start with what happens to Corey and the shocks kept coming as we pieced everything together. I also personally loved the ending, because I’m a sucker for that. 

However, I do have some complaints that kept this from being *my* perfect horror and that I think are worth alerting others on. First, Myles was SO close to perfect. I was rooting for him. But you do not have sex with people who are asleep. I don’t care if you had consensual sex the night before. I hated that scene and how it was presented as him still loving her and it completely turned me off of him. My second issue has to do with the numerous trigger warnings. I get that most of these are expected in a horror book, but I hate that. I’d love a mystery/thriller/horror that *doesn’t* rely on homophobia to be scary if written by a straight person. Just like I don’t want one relying on racism to be written by a white person, because those are real horrors and if you’re not the targeted community, I don’t think you should be sensationalizing them. There’s homophobic language and plot lines that aren’t necessary, as well as use of the r-word. I will clarify that this book was originally published in the early 2000s though and while it does not excuse the language, it may no longer reflect the way Tananarive Due writes. Tariq and Corey’s inner monologues almost justifying domestic abuse also just made me feel icky. 

Other trigger warnings include suicide, death of a child, animal cruelty, blood/gore, sexual assault and rape (including of a 13 year old girl), homophobia, racism, ableism, domestic abuse. 

There’s also some discussion into the indigenous history of the setting, although I can’t speak to the accuracy of the representation. 

Overall, I will absolutely be reading more Tananarive Due and I’m especially excited to dive into more of her more recent work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Rape, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Racism, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, and Death of parent

talonsontypewriters'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
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Murder, Child death, Racism, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Animal death, Misogyny, Car accident, Dementia, Death of parent, Rape, Domestic abuse, Gore, Drug use, Hate crime, Medical content, and Sexism

Minor: Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Excrement, Ableism, Alcohol, Incest, Miscarriage, Slavery, and Vomit

Passing use of F and R slurs.

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

ommageden's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

The book was ok. Although the build up didn't really pay off in a worthwhile ending to me. Everywhere I read people hyped this book up as THE haunted house book and it really just wasn't. It felt more like the paranormal was driving human violence and anger which wasn't really what was there for.

The ending itself felt anticlimactic and the overall the book started to overstay it's welcome with some unnecessary time jumps said long near the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Murder