Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The September House by Carissa Orlando

81 reviews

larajgriff1's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Sufficiently scary in the horror way while also being scary in the interpersonal way.  Though warning: if you don't like gore, don't come within 10 feet of this book.  Much like blood from the walls, it oozes from every page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Gaslighting

alicroz34's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

Attacking the haunted house genre from the perspective of an overly agreeable mom who just puts up with most of it is kind of hilarious. 

I devoured this in two days. 

I did notice 100% of adult men who died in the house did not get to come back as ghosts and did not get to have their injuries reversed at the end. I find that very interesting, but I did want an acknowledgement of that somewhere? Like we're literally watching all the children & adult women who died in the house heal & leave (if they want to) and then they just sit on the porch like... so Hal is dead. I'm down with it but I was like... is no one else seeing a pattern here hi hello.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

saltycoffee's review

dark 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

aparker89's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

tew_11's review

dark emotional funny tense medium-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

holeeeyyyshite. best final act of a book i've read in a while. truly horrifying in some aspects. really enjoyed this 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

katieengelhart's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Blood, and Vomit

anissawren's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Blood, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Body horror, Suicide, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, and Cannibalism

arkwen452's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

The September House will pull readers into a mysterious, quirky narrative that's strongly driven by dark humor, in my opinion, based on the situation with Margaret in her house. 

It's told in first person and Margaret's nonchalant approach and perspective for her time in this odd, creepy and clearly haunted house filled with "pranksters" as she likes to call them is clearly not of a person who scares easily. Readers get to know Margret and learn about a lot of the hard times she's endured. But we also learn about the previous souls who lived there. And as described through her eyes, the "pranksters" actually really aren't all that bad. 

And the manor of which the author humanizes them led me to believe the intention of the book was meant to be on the dark humor more than horror. 

I think that the pacing of the book is done very well, and each chapter ties into Margaret, and Hal's marriage and their relationship with the new house really came together well. Made it an enjoyable read. 

A lot of the time in each chapter I  I found myself questioning Margaret's sanity and her control over reality. She said that Hal also noticed things in the house BUT since the POV is in first person I can't fully trust her interpretation of everything; there were also moments when it felt like the events of the house with the pranksters of the house that, as Margret calls them, made everything seem like it was actually happening. 

Like the actions/events were concrete. Therefore the author will keep the readers questioning until the very end of the book whether it is real or the September house is just a figment of Margaret's imagination. 

I don't think the horror element really kicks in until the last fourth of the book and I think that , there are more creepy elements that happen in the book overall. Especially with the use of the phrases "he's down there" in reference to Master Vale and how Margaret saw notions of that outside of the house.

Again, with it being in first person, readers cannot trust if what Margret's seeing is actually reality or just figment of her imagination. Without giving spoilers, I will say that I was very pleased with the way the ending is tied up because , it got to a point in the narrative where the word "crazy" was being tossed around and signs were pointing to Margret being commItted. I didn't like the angle of it being a psychosis issue rather than something factual. Not only because this is a red flag trope for me and it is never really done well when it comes to individual having some sort of psychosis leading to them having erratic behavior. 

But

also due to the fact that we learn a lot of what Margaret went through with her relationship with Hal and The abuse, and his alcoholism. In the beginning, I got the interpretation that how and Catherine did not have a connection because he didn't like the fact that she was a lesbian but as we continue through the book more and more details of the past is revealed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

jourdanicus's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

4.5

This book is great allegory for

domestic abuse

and the kind of family relationships that follow the pattern of suppressing/repressing emotions with a satisfying, gory horror ending. I did feel the language could have been cleaned up a bit - I'm not offended by  swearing but I think there was more than necessary to get the point across. There were also some details that felt a bit more repetitive than necessary to get the point across.

Otherwise, this was almost a perfect 5 star read for me. I love horror that mixes psychological thrill with physical horror, and an unreliable narrator is one of my favorite tropes. In fact, this book made clever use of a few recognizable horror tropes without them being too obvious or heavy handed. I heard elements of The Shining, and several horror movies of which I can't think of the names.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys psychological horror, mother/daughter relationship themes, stories with unreliable narrators, fans of classic horror, and Stephen King fans. Don't read while eating if you're sensitive or have a vivid visual imagination... Lol.

Mind the triggers, but everyone including the children get

justice and a happy ending

!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Death of parent, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

archaicrobin's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

The September House was absolutely gruesome in so many ways, I absolutely loved it. I am always on the search for the next great haunted house read and September House is now one of my top ten.  Margaret is living in a haunted house that acts up every September but she’s learned to live with it. According to Margaret everything is survivable, as long as you follow the rules….

Filled with real and supernatural terrors, this book was addictive and hard to out down. Highly recommend especially if you love haunted house horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail