Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The September House by Carissa Orlando

85 reviews

prizazz's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense

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

5.0

The author hits you pretty hard over the head with her point but I’m not mad about it. It is a classic haunted house narrative where the house is also a character while also reflecting on the challenges of home ownership and what people have to go through to have secure housing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

hookerkitty's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Hands down the best book I read all year *chef’s kiss*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Death of parent

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Suicide, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Cannibalism

persephonefoxx's review against another edition

dark 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

“The walls of the house were bleeding again.This sort of thing could be expected; it was, after all, September.”

This book asks the question, ‘what happens when the person living in a haunted house accepts the horrors around them’ in a spectacular balance of humour, horror, and heavy themes. The September House is at its core, a story about the lengths you take to survive which sees the titular setting serving as both literal and metaphorical. 

I adored this book. It feels like a unique and complex mix of genres ranging from dark comedy, horror, physiological thriller, and mystery - with multiple characters almost finding themselves experiencing the plot as if they were in a different genre to each other. 

And while I clued in to the twists early on, I was enthralled the whole way through. 

As with all horror, I highly recommend checking trigger warnings. While this story has an air of humour, it does cover some darker themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Mental illness, and Vomit

Minor: Self harm and Suicide

meagan123's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm, Suicide, Dementia, and Gaslighting

maregred's review

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• 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: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Mental illness, Suicide, Vomit, and Cannibalism

carrie562's review

dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

This book had a fantastic premise, but the execution was somewhat disappointing. Still, I enjoyed it and wanted to keep reading and find out what was going to happen. A lot of gore and violence but not enough chills or moments of real terror. The tone took me by surprise, too - it’s not one of those mounting-dread, what’s-going-on-here haunted house stories. It’s a little bit sillier, but the reason for that literary choice does become clear as the story progresses.

The story is told in first person, both as the harrowing events of the present unfold and in flashbacks to explain the history of the main characters and their family dynamic. The MC and her husband have purchased a gorgeous old house that turns out to be haunted by a bunch of murder victims, mostly children, mostly (but not entirely) harmless but extremely upsetting. The narrator’s elaborate system for coping with the various ghostly presences is presented as an allegory for living with an abusive spouse. The author, unfortunately, does not trust you for a hot second to notice this symbolism on your own and points out the parallels over and over again. Her constant “see? see what I did there?” gets tiresome pretty quickly and dulls what could have been a sharp piece of social commentary.

As for the horror plot, it’s pretty standard issue: bad things happened in the house, and the restless spirits are trapped there until they get satisfaction. Revenge? Justice? Whatever, the details aren't important. The first person perspective allows for some clever ambiguity - is this a reliable narrator? what’s really going on here? - but more could have been done with that to build suspense throughout the book. Still, it was a quick and entertaining Halloween read, if not an enduring classic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

andy5185's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

2.0

I wanted to like this so much based on all the buzz, but in the end I found it too cliche for my taste. That said, the ghosts were all really well rendered and it definitely had some truly horrifying chiller moments.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

gem114's review

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

I’m not usually a horror fan, but I couldn’t put this down.

I loved how the author explored the parallels of staying in an abuse relationship to staying in the haunted house. Of course Hal couldn’t adapt. As the abuser, he wasn’t nearly as practiced as Margaret at “making a heaven out of a hell.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

michellefre's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

czoltak's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

My heebies are officially jeebied 😱 
I guess I won’t be sleeping tonight 🫣
THAT ENDING!?! I’m just sitting here with my jaw hanging open trying to form some coherent thoughts. This was amazing!!! Every time I thought I knew where it was going everything went off the rails instead. This has got to be the most intense ending to a book I’ve ever read. This is up there for sure as one of the best haunted house books I’ve ever read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Blood, and Vomit

Minor: Suicide and Cannibalism