Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

90 reviews

mobymaize's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

This book is very important. Reading it, at times, is very much a challenge. I had fun with it, despite taking me nearly 5 months to read. Take into advice the first line of House of Leaves: This is not for you, but the novel is also very interesting, so you might want to read it. Be prepared to flip your book upside down, and to be interrupted in the middle of a description of abyssal hallways leading on for infinity with a (NSFW)

very explicit scene where a main character gets a finger up his butt and cums from it

. Great & wild book, will never read again /pos.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mental illness, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Vomit

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Lesbophobia

hazelbynature's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Confinement, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, Gore, Incest, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Infidelity, Rape, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Body horror

Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Excrement

avacadosocks's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Animal death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Gore, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Terminal illness, Incest, Vomit, Cancer, and Pedophilia

rowbean's review against another edition

mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Drug use, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Rape, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Body horror, Addiction, and Alcoholism

badtzmarus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Very cool book! It contains several themes and everyone that has read it leaves with different perspectives, great if you want a more long-term book, you really shouldn't rush into finishing it, or if you want to revisit it months after you first read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Grief, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

Some of the johnny parts are kinda tense and may make you uncomfortable, but will make sense to really get the guy later on, I'd advise you to not skip anything, but if graphic sex scenes are not your thing go for it.

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Animal death, Drug use, Addiction, Medical content, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Car accident, Child death, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Excrement, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and War

sasquatch_3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, Mental illness, Cursing, Drug use, Alcoholism, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Gun violence, Body horror, Torture, and Cancer

wackydopamine's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Death, Sexual assault, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, and Suicide

katherine_shelton's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

When I started this book I didn't add it to my Storygraph or Goodreads accounts because I was pretty sure I was going to "DNF" it, as the kids say. But for some reason I kept coming back to it. Parts were compelling, parts were utterly ridiculous, the pages with two sentences per page felt like a reprieve from the rest... The book is cavernous and it's flawed. I can best describe it as faux academic satire(?) that is pretentious and dry, but punctuated by occasional brilliance. Is it worth all the effort? Honestly, I don't know. I'm glad I read it, there are passages that I really loved. But it is a book with major snarkiness that will irritate a lot of people. Sometimes it has the energy of College Freshman boys with Madonna-Wh*re Complexes who have just discovered  Nietzsche and Libertarianism for the first time and think they're smarter and deeper than everyone else, and everything they say it dripping with snide irony and contempt. But it's not always like that, and there is value in the book - you just have to go down a hallway that feels like it will never end in order to find it. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide, Mental illness, Child abuse, and Sexism

thestorydoer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Now, I can safely say, I am not the target audience for this novel. I am a university student with ADHD, and Im also very obsessed with efficient storytelling.

This book is scary, yeah, but only occasionally. it's filled with long ramblings that almost felt like a train of thought. Unfortunately, I couldn't focus on the book so often, I missed a lot of the plot elements. Yet I stuck it out because the scary elements in this book are incredibly clever. Most of the other scary factors will be found not in the ramblings itself, but the afterthought and questioning of those ramblings. That being said, I think I should've read something else.

It took me so long because I struggle reading books which break flow. This constantly asks the reader to jump around the book. This is what I tried on my first attempt but the book made no sense. therefore, it is best read as a linear story on a first read, and a non-linear story on a second. although, I did skip a lot of the appendix mentions because I just couldn't be bothered.

I can imagine this being very good for some people as it can be genuinely terrifying. However, if you are at all in my demographic (ADHD, doesn't ponder on stories and details afterward, prefers an ebb and flow in your books), you may not like this. Spend your $75 on 3 $25 books by your local Dymocks instead.

Overall, 3/5. Genuinely scary at times but I personally struggled reading 70% of it. You probably won't like it if you're anything like me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia