Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Daphne by Josh Malerman

15 reviews

babyfacedoldsoul's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Unfortunately this was another example of a Malerman book where I was disappointed with the ending. I found the pacing very slow and the book a bit too cerebral for me. It is a good portrait of anxiety however and while I didn't find the characters to be fleshed out very well I did enjoy the interactions especially between the teenagers and their parents. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

cwgonzales's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

A supernatural murder mystery of sorts playing out around a high school girls basketball team. 
The monster murderer side of things is fun, chilling and gruesome, but I’m pretty tired of characters needing to overcome trauma as a key point of a story. 
You can do anything with your BARE HANDS, got it? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

cloudii_rain's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

All I will say that this book should not have been this long and especially for the ‘payoff’ at the end, bc, what WAS that? 😟 

It’s alright, and I liked how it talks about anxiety a lot !! But it just dragged on and on and on, and again, the ending was just, disappointing at best. :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping

chooper454's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Violence and Murder

devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident

louisegraveyard's review

challenging dark emotional informative 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Death of parent

desana75's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, and Stalking

Minor: Car accident

jourdanicus's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

Hmm, this book was more interesting than scary or horrifying to me. I don't have a very vivid visual imagination so the gory character deaths didn't do much to me. But the metaphor of the monster being anxiety, that was interesting to me.

Some of the plot points were a little confusing but maybe that was just me not paying close enough attention. I also felt like the ending was a bit rushed, maybe for the sake of tension, but that fell through as I didn't feel that much tension had been built up to that point.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who loves basketball and horror, lol. We love a niche sub-genre. I'm interested to explore more by this author and see if anything else he wrote falls more into my wheelhouse.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

maddireads13's review

dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Murder

seawarrior's review

4.0

Reviewing this several months after I first read it, so I don't remember details. I thought that Daphne was mostly a well-constructed allegory for how anxiety often feels relentless and never-ending. The characters were fairly simplistic, but they're mostly there to die anyway. The uniqueness and thrill of this slasher story are what make it worth reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail