Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Kartographie des Inneren by Stephen Graham Jones

5 reviews

archaicrobin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

Stephen Graham Jones is one of those horror authors I always come back to because his stories are dark and heart wrenching.  His horror melds supernatural with real human evil in a way that’s truly terrifying. 

This novella is often described as a house of leaves situation, but it is not that at all! The house is not the focus here, it’s just where the events happen. Junior is 12 years old and begins seeing his dead father roaming the halls of his ramshackle home. With a disabled brother, a single mother, bullying at school, a deputy making night visits, and  an aggressive neighbor with vicious dogs, Junior first sees his dad’s apparition as a good thing. But soon he starts to see the apparitions true intentions. 

While this book is short I found myself needing to put it down at times just to have a break from the sheer bleakness. I highly recommend this or any other Stephen Graham Jones novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Animal death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Death of parent, and Police brutality

vixenreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.5

An example of a great author’s early book, this book is a flawed, but vibe coming-of-age story about the cycle of intergenerational trauma and toxicity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, and Animal death

Moderate: Child death, Bullying, Blood, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Racism, Child abuse, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Violence

Minor: Cursing and Sexual content

Be aware of animal attacks, abuse towards children living with a disability, racism towards First Nations, and epilepsy/seizures.

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I'm a huge fan of horror, the type that can handle gore, jumpscares, you name it, yet this book unsettled me EXTREMELY. The ending has left me more confused than any other book has this year. I cannot explain enough how reading this sleep deprived at 2 in the morning has freaked me out. From the beginning, this image of a looming man dressed in full dancing regalia scared me. I imagined the spirit in the shadows, not exactly a man but not something else either. The tension continued to build even when the ghost wasn't present, and I commend Stephen Graham Jones for that. The scariest thing to me turns out to be suspense and this book is overflowing with it. Some of the most unsettling things for me were

the disgusting pulsating nest underneath the house, the image of the father feeding on Dino's energy through his gaping maw, and the scene where those Frankenstein mutts eat him and tear off the regalia that turns out to be a part of his physical body.

Chills. I love reading unreliable narrators, I just didn't expect Junior to be speaking in the past tense. I thought the book would be entirely from a child's perspective. Not a problem just something I was surprised about.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Death, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Gaslighting

comrademolly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Car accident, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Body horror, Death of parent, Death, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

sexualedward's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Bullying, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Classism, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Sexual content, Colonisation, Addiction, Gun violence, Police brutality, Racism, War, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Stalking, and Xenophobia