Reviews tagging 'Death'

The September House by Carissa Orlando

198 reviews

dbmassey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

mark5327's review

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

Margaret is alone in a house filled with "pranksters," ghosts who only present their greatest challenges to the home's only living occupant in September.

The September House gave me a story which I've read before, but in a super readable manner. It wasn't until the big showdown at the end where I lost any momentum at all and that's just because I don't love action sequences. If you love ghost stories with likeable protagonists and an unsettling sense of atmosphere based on the accumulation of regular haunting events, you could do far worse than The September House. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

camilleo's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book freaked me out SOOOOO badly. I mostly read it during the day bc otherwise i think I would’ve been too scared 😭

I really like how this wasn’t your typical horror book and the different themes it explored.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

dreamless_dreamer's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

amysbooknook8's review against another edition

dark 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Death

queenkath32's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

frances_frances's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

MINOR SPOILERS
Overall really enjoyed this book but was a bit disappointed by the very end, satisfied me enough to give it 5 stars
- Margaret was a really interesting character and narrator, I liked how we slowly learn the horrific realities of her marriage, felt realistic to how a DV survivor would tell their story
- Interesting how Margaret handles the horror of her home in the same way she handled the horror of her marriage
- The writing was really sharp and hooked me right away
- Felt like a fresh, original take on haunted house stories
- Didn't like the ending after the climax, felt way too neat and tidy, way mushier than it should have been, tone totally out of place compared to the rest of the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, and Murder

oxfordcomma2904's review

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

2.0

I get what the author was going for, and I applaud their originality but it just wasn't what I was looking for. More comedic than frightening.  If I read "language!" one more time, I was going to scream.  And the ending was unhinged.

Lets brutally murder three people but then just shrug it off because *checks notes* ghosts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

raineyrainbows's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Alcohol

mjanehastings's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.25

Lots of Triggers approach with caution 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail