Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan

6 reviews

books_unraveling's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

I’m not going to knock this book because it wasn’t my style. There were some really great things about this book, especially the descriptive writing and creepy elements. In the beginning, I was worried the writing style was just random ramblings, but toward the middle and end it shifted into better storytelling. I also liked the incredibly creepy haunted house that “replays” memories from the past. Also, how cool that it’s set in Virginia?

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty

aparker89's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book. This book is going to stay with me. A haunted house in an honorable homage to Haunting of Hill House, this story delves deep into our greatest innate fears while leaving most of the ghosts in shadows. A true ghost story that leaves you wanting for nothing. The last 100 pages (of a relatively short book) are a race to find out if our admirable narrator will prevent the horrors of the future from happening! The ending will tear out your heart out! Goddamm! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Pregnancy, Racism, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Death, and Bullying

mandi_lea's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Violence, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Slavery, and Suicide

curiouslykatt's review

slow-paced

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

4.25

Holy shit. I loved this one. It Will Just Be Us is a grotesquely fascinating Frankenstein, pulling together my favourite parts of horror and the macabre to create a very creepy gothic horror novel. 

After Sam is assaulted and left on the streets, she decides to return home. Not the flat she was living in, no, no, her ancestral home the Wakefield manor. The derelict manor in disrepair and rotting with decay. The manor sinking at the edge of Virginia swampland. The manor haunted by memories. Sam and her ailing mother see flickers of memories and are accustomed to reliving the past in the winding halls and behind locked doors. Soon their uneasy peace is turned over when Sam’s sister Elizabeth has decided to leave her husband and return home to the manor to see through her pregnancy. 

Sam is used to the house showing her flickering memories of former manor residents, but something is different now that Elizabeth has arrived. Are these memories, or are some ghost flickers of future Wakefields? 

Right from the hop Kaplan begins her creepy story and she doesn’t let up. There is a weird section in the middle that gets a bit too meta for my personal brand of horror, but it doesn’t last long. I thought I was going to get House of Leaves but I got so many pieces of classic horror I adore. 

If you’re a fan of The Winchester House, Shirley Jacksonesque horror style around grief, the Netflix series of The Haunting Of Hill House, the film aesthetic of Kubrick Re: The Shining and a slow burn haunted house story, you’ll want to pick this one up. 

CW: animal abuse (frogs and birds), suicide, domestic violence, physical assault

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Animal cruelty

Minor: Physical abuse and Domestic abuse

readwithbells's review

dark tense medium-paced

5.0

Possibly the best haunted house story I’ve ever read. The atmosphere was ominous but not too oppressive, the haunting tropes were twisted upside down, and the combination of supernatural horror and humanity horror was unparalleled. I loved how we assumed it was going to turn out ok, and then when you realize what exactly is going on, the horror gets even deeper. The final image Kaplan leaves us with is truly something I will never get out of my brain. Flipping fantastic. Perfectly horrible. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Animal cruelty, and Death of parent

Moderate: Slavery and Domestic abuse

Minor: Pedophilia and Adult/minor relationship

ktrecs's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Vomit