Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

74 reviews

bug81's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence

Minor: Suicide

rllaird's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Drug abuse, and Animal death

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Vomit

honest_soupe's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Absolutely amazing read. Wish they had let me think my thoughts on characters were original though! Please stop saying exactly what I was thinking about people. It makes it harder for me to feel smart about it lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child abuse, Cursing, Violence, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Addiction, Grief, Sexual content, Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Gaslighting, Cultural appropriation, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

will be writing an essay on this. will be also have the greatest bit where I will point at any house with leaves nearby for any reason and say "OMG it's just like that thing!!!"

literallygriffin's review

challenging dark emotional funny tense slow-paced

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

4.5

just as good as people say it is. read house of leaves right now & go into it blind. trust me on this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Stalking, Violence, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Child abuse, and Suicide

rmbrndt's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad 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

3.5

Ultimately a glorified SCP but the in text analyses and humanity elevate it. 
Personally I don't think the formatting does anything for this book - the footnotes work well but shifting the text around is unnecessary.
So misogynistic at parts it made me infuriatingly angry which easily secured that I will never read another MZD book ever again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Pedophilia, Grief, Animal death, Suicide, Child death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

monroebays's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

This book demands much more of you than most, but it is so worth it. I’m sure every review says it but I’m gonna say it again: I can’t describe it, really. Just give it a try.

This is a book about a man piecing together an unfinished academic book about a documentary about a very strange house. The story of the man working on the book and the book itself make up the majority of the text. As you can imagine, it’s confusing and very layered. At some point, it starts to try to loop you into the story.

Danielewski is obsessed with the mechanics of words, paper, and knowledge. This book presents you with a tangled mess, carefully curated to confuse you, move you, scare you. And because danielewski’s deep knowledge of words is on display, you’re left wondering how fully that mess can be cleaned up into a full narrative if only you read it properly. I finished the book with many mysteries unsolved, but find myself drawn back to the book again to investigate further. If you’ve read the book already, you understand why this effect is probably why the book’s horror is so effective. 

At the end of the day, the story is kind of secondary to the reading experience. It’s crazy. It’s fun. It’s dark and sad and weird. Just give it a few chapters and see if it’s for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Violence, Vomit, Infidelity, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, and War

ethanlaz'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Vomit, Sexual content, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Violence, Suicide, Medical trauma, Dementia, Cursing, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gore, Death, Cancer, Body horror, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Infidelity, Medical content, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

ghostams's review

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I really liked the ‘main’ plot, but the formatting and pacing was hard to deal with. Core concept very cool in my opinion, just not executed well for me😅

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Drug use, Death, Murder, Violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal death, War, Sexual assault, and Cancer

cgoiris's review

This is a difficult one to give stars. I sort of think I get what the author was trying to do. I can see multiple layers to the story, from criticising media critics to trying to evoke a deeply unsettled feeling that follows the reader beyond the book.

But there were also parts I despised. Why does every woman in this book have to be profoundly damaged? Why does Bambi never really get a personality beyond motherly concern for our main character? Why does the author try to establish deep and bleak backstories with a couple of sentences, multiple times? It's already a 700 page book, trees died for this, don't be shy, flesh it out. 

I'm gonna try to do the content warnings but I'm probably gonna forget a few because there's A LOT. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug use, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization

marielcariker's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.5

I’ve never read anything like this and maybe never will again. Fascinating and infuriating! Crazy to read something that only works as a physical book and would not translate on an e-reader. I loved the journey but don’t necessarily recommend reading unless you like a challenge. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, Death, and Blood