Reviews tagging 'Rape'

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

11 reviews

aparker89's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow! I just could not put this one down! I spent an entire day devouring this book and I imagine many others will too! I liked it so much- I plan on purchasing a hard copy in addition to the ebook! 
Absolutely fantastic writing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Murder, Abandonment, Bullying, Gaslighting, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Stalking, Terminal illness, Violence, Chronic illness, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Toxic relationship

mccalab's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Vomit

Minor: Rape

bookeduntil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Body horror, Sexism, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Blood, Chronic illness, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual assault, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, Suicide, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Incest, Cannibalism, Classism, Infertility, and Infidelity

adragoninspace's review against another edition

dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Blood, Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Racism, Death, Death of parent, and Rape

blacksphinx's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a really lovely sapphic Gothic that goes some places. I just loved the light epistolary touch - every couple of chapters you'll get a transcribed interview between our protagonist Roos and the doctor hired by the court to determine if she's sane enough to stand accused in a murder trial. I felt the interviews gave a good scaffolding to the book. Normally I hate narration that's like "little did they know that one of them would soon be dead", but knowing the tale we are being told has already occurred and getting flickers of how it ends just built up the dread for me. Some parts of this novel thrilled and chilled me; but at other points, I was stuck by how derivative certain plot elements were. (One character's backstory seemed lifted straight out of a very famous Gothic novel; the author even name-checks that one in the back.)

Overall this is a great novel about the lingering effects of trauma and what that does to those who survive. If you're a goth who is always tweeting about "toxic yuri", open a new tab and buy it now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Self harm, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse

Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Trafficking

It's a massive spoiler but

drug overdose

peachy_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

My Darling Dreadful Thing was a dark and mysterious tale of love and obsession and the blurred lines between the two. I adored Ruth and Roos’ sticky codependent relationship, and how it juxtaposed Roos and Agnes’ relationship which, while still dark and creaky, would have been a step in a more positive direction for Roos. 

The gothic atmosphere was so well crafted, helped along but the presence of Ruth and Peter whose creepy ever changing appearances which leant a certain level of surreal-ness to everything. AND THE MYSTERY ELEMENTS! Each reveal made me gasp with horror but it was so delightfully twisted to discover each one.

If this story was comprised solely of the life and Roos as she suffered the mysteries of Rozentuin, it would be a solid 4 stars for me! Roos desperation to please Agnes and the tenuous foundation of their relationship was compelling. I wish I could splice those parts of the story apart from the oddness of of the rest of it,,,

While I loved the writing and the main story of it all, I found myself in turns baffled and frustrated by the interviews with the doctor. At first it was an interesting tilt on the ghostly story to inject a bit of realism, to throw doubt into Roos’ story. But soon it was being used to undermine much of the sense of mystery. We weren’t allowed to sit with any ominous foreshadowing before the Doctor was spelling it out for us, as if we couldn’t draw the conclusions ourselves. 

**SPOILERS** The doctor’s presence was especially redundant during the trial. Any doubt that was created about Roos actual mental health and the realness of the ghosts was ruined when the lawyer outright proved Roos couldn’t have done anything she was accused of, veritably proving the reality of the ghosts and destroying any mystery. From there the story limped on a few more baffling chapters of Roos starting her new life and getting better? Question mark? But still having Ruth and still firmly believing Agnes would come back to her. It felt like, especially with the inclusion of the excerpt of the Doctor’s writing, that the author was still trying to draw back to the doubts about Roos’ mental health and the reality of Ruth, but by that point it felt thoroughly shattered. At least for me!

Anyways while I loved the main story, I didn’t not appreciate the use of the Doctor as a story telling element and felt he greatly diminished much of the appeal of the main storyline. For that I can only give 3.5 stars :/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Rape, Racism, Death, Body horror, Grief, Vomit, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

coobugz's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

So at first, my thoughts were ‘wtf am I reading?’ I’m not a big horror and ‘spooky book’ reader, and the first bit made me nervous. But the further I got into it, the harder it was for me to put the book down. In a way, it’s like a dark ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ mixed with a less haunting ‘The Shining.’ 
I appreciated the interspersed different POVs, and looked forward to the doctor’s POV/case notes. I felt defensive and protective of Roos, and have respect for Dr. Montague. Not gonna lie, Ruth weirds me out and pissed me off sometimes, but that’s plot for ya. 
A solid 2 claps for the ending and epilogue. 👏👏
I received the book through Goodreads giveaways as an advanced copy and was super excited to read it before the release date, and to give my first review. 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Vomit, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death of parent, Incest, Murder, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Cursing, Cannibalism, and Infertility

emily_journals's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.0

This book was a really solid read and a strong debut novel and I will definitely have my eye on this author moving forward. 

I really enjoyed the inter-character relationships going on in this book and I really loved the world-building.  You can tell that the author really took time to develop the relationships in this book, especially those between Roos and Ruth and between Roos and Agnes. The ghost/spirit lore established in this book was so intriguing and unique. The level of intricacy in this lore of relating not only how someone dies, but where their body resides to how a spirit comes to be and has to be reawakened was really brilliantly done. 

As typically expected when reading a debut novel, there were some craft issues with this book. While I did really love the inter-character relationships in this book, I did think that the character development of singular characters could have been explored more. I also thought that the pacing of this book was a bit off, this book felt very slow and drawn out for the level of plot and character development that were happening within this book, but I think learning when to draw out or condense parts of a story typically come with practice so I'm usually a little more forgiving of debut authors on pacing. My biggest complaint about this book is that even though it was a horror novel and there was a level of anticipation as certain points, I felt that this book was greatly lacking in suspense. For me, the interview framing device was taking suspense out of this story rather than adding to it and I wish that the framing had been done a little differently so that I still felt suspense going through this story. 

Overall, this was a very strong debut and the character relationships and lore building generally outweighed the craft issues for me. 

ARC provided by NetGalley.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Self harm, Murder, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Incest, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cannibalism, Child death, and Racism

Minor: Colonisation, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Animal death, Classism, and Drug use

natlren's review

dark emotional medium-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

4.25

Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinons are my own :) 

My Darling Dreadful Thing is a visceral, haunting, and bloody novel rich with gothic themes and a sapphic romance that is equal parts bitter and sweet. I really enjoyed how the story within this one developed, especially as Roos' reliability as a narrator is called into question. 

What this book really succeeds at is making us second guess ourselves. Is Ruth real? Is Peter? Or were Agnes and Roos mentally ill women abused and traumatized by the men and the other powerful people in their lives? Ultimately, this book explores heavy themes of abuse and trauma and I loved watching Roos get to reclaim her autonomy from the people who have hurt her. 

Also worth mentioning is how stunning the prose within this novel is. Each word is as sharp as a shard of glass and I'm looking forward to seeing My Darling Dreadful Thing make its way into the world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

Minor: Animal death

atlastheninth's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

I received a free ARC of this book and here's my honest review.

At the beginning the author writes: “If you strip down My Darling Dreadful Thing until nothing remains but its essence, you will not find a horrific secret at its very heart. You will find, instead, a love story.” And I could not say it better. 

 

Overall this was an enjoyable, easy flowing read. I liked the writing, I liked the characters an I liked the pacing. 

I also did enjoy the interview excerpts every other chapter but at the same time I felt like they took out some of the tension. 

 

The ending was nice, but a bit boring? The story just kind of ebbed off with no real climax. 

Personally I had hoped for something a bit more exciting and maybe that the question if the spirits are actually real would have been answered, but that's just my preference. 

 

"I know what she wants: to curl herself around me like a comma and press her gaping mouth to my throat so she can drink my blood." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Rape, and Child abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, and Misogyny