Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

74 reviews

cosmicsapphic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Vomit, Gore, Grief, Drug abuse, and Death

Minor: Rape

nozoh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

I still can't fully wrap my head around it, but it has been the most interesting reading experience I've had. It wasn't scary to me but definitely unsettling. Unexpectedly I was moved to tears at some points too! Even after finishing it I spent an hour or so going back to certain pages and appendixes to confirm things and coming to new realizations, and that's pretty special. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Addiction, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Sexism, Alcoholism, Gun violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Death of parent, Cursing, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Ableism, and Child death

woweewhoa's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Body horror, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Ableism, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Suicide, Vomit, Physical abuse, Rape, Car accident, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Homophobia and Cancer

random19379's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Grief, Rape, Mental illness, Gore, Death, Death of parent, Torture, Addiction, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

maiahhtratchh's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Gosh. This book was a trip. I LOVED parts and I HATED parts. I did really enjoy the style and the letters either Johnny’s mother was probably one of the most interesting/heartbreaking parts. Honestly I’ll probably read it again one day and maybe I’ll get more out of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual content

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

ana____g____'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Gun violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault

sara_berlin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

“I have no idea whether it’s on purpose or not. Sometimes I’m certain it is. Other times I’m sure it’s just one big fucking train wreck.” (Page 149)

I could tell this book would be a trip just from the introduction (little did I know to what extent). It unnerved me to my core, was strange and exhilarating but also at times hilariously absurd. I liked the random tangents of linguistics, physics, chemistry and psychology that it went on (although the one about echoes was just boring almost-nonsense, even though I understood the purpose it was still my least favorite) but other people might find that annoying so depends on your taste. I’ll be honest, I didn’t read entirety of the insanely long lists of names or random other things like architectural features, just enough to get the gist of what it was.

Some parts of this were borderline erotica (blame Truant trying to bury his fear using sex, drugs and alcohol), so definitely not appropriate for younger readers.

It did get a bit slower about halfway through when the actual plot was mostly over with and we just got some final reveals, more background on the characters, the aftermath of the events and reactions to the film, but I still appreciated and enjoyed it. I really like how the relationships between all the characters, especially Karen and Navy, are examined and how there’s different theories and views on them. It also leaves some stuff up for interpretation by us. Oh, and there's three appendices so that was interesting. My favorite part of those were the letters.

One of my many favorite aspects of the book was how trauma was examined. At first I was like “aren’t they overreacting a little to this whole house thing?” But when I thought about it, I would probably react the same way. I’m just so used to characters in Young Adult books being seemingly immune to trauma, seeing people die and killing people without any huge impacts on their mental health (with the exception of Six of Crows, which did it pretty well, my compliments to Leigh Bardugo). Pretty much every character got at least a bit of an explanation of the impacts the house had on them and why it was different for different people. I really appreciate that.

I tabbed the hell out of this book, probably like more than thirty tabs. I enjoyed it to the very last page (excluding the index, obviously). Despite many things not being explained the way they normally are in books, I didn't feel annoyed or like it was unfinished. This is definitely a book I’ll be rereading soon. Definitely isn’t a book that's easy to read and relaxing, it takes real effort to focus and understand.  I feel like the resilience I’ve gained from reading this in only a little under three weeks makes me capable of reading anything, lol. Although it did hook me so that definitely made it easier. Also it’s crazy to think how my perception has changed since reading the first page, even since being halfway through.

             -1st reread/2nd read-

I don’t reread books very often, but this was one where the second I finished it I was like I want to forget it all and do it over again, and while I will say that I forgot a lot more than I thought I did and I definitely gained some new observations and things that stood out to me on this reread, I did remember a fair bit. It took me a lot longer this time around, I think partly because of life circumstances and partly because there wasn’t that much suspense since, even if I didn’t remember the details, I still kinda knew what to expect. Overall, I did enjoy rereading it and will probably do it again at some point in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, Cursing, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Gun violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

drjoeby's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This was a really tough book to read. Straight up quit reading it, picked it back up, and had to hold myself hostage on a plane ride to see it through. The last ~100 pages are an appendix that largely serves minor plot function so it's not as long a read as it feels like, but it feeling like a long read is kind of the point. It's wordy, full of run-ons, overtly sexual in uncomfortable ways, and the horror feels spread out between a lot of soap opera style drama. I don't necessarily understand it as a "modern horror classic" but it's an interesting book stylistically.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexual content, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: War and Violence

The "mental illness" aspect of the book makes it a disorienting read that can be tough if you struggle with disorientation yourself.

13octopus's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Infidelity

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, and Incest

le0o's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Murder, and Mental illness