Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

101 reviews

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Pedophilia

cmuise's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

magicant's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

booksnakekel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ellie_rowo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

hnelson510's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Gun violence, and Sexual content

joshoonet's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

• The very core story of the Navidson Record is incredibly interesting and thrilling. I love the descriptions of their explorations and the uncertainty that comes with them.
• Zampanòs huge passages of discussing certain words and picking apart their meanings nearly made me stop reading, out of pure disconnection with the content. Even if it related to the core story. My god.
• Can only recommend checking out the appendixes as one goes along, they provide a more thorough understanding of the text. Although the same can't be said about the hints to other chapters. That got too confusing for me.
• LOVED the code that could be found and potentially deciphered here and there. I'm sure i missed some too.
• Overall: high concentration needed to read this, but worth it in the end. I'll keep thinking about it for a while, but won't be picking it up again anytime soon.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Long, purely informative passages about the background and meaning of specific terms or topics can be skipped or skimmed. On the topic of sexual content and misogyny:

truant's stories are laden with viewing women only as sexual objects; these parts can be skipped without losing too much of the plot.

blobvis's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• 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

Alright people be like "I can't describe this book" and I think they're not trying hard enough lol

Anyways, this books follows the story of Johnny who found the so called Navidson records, an essay about a film that probably has never existed and is written by the man who lived in the apartment before him. As the reader you are experiencing the story of Navidson at the same time as Johnny is. Which it think it pretty neat. What makes this book fun however is not the endless, quite boring footnotes with Johnny's drugs and sex life, or the long explanation about why there is a parallel between Navidson and his brother and a part of the Bible. What makes it interesting is how the writer uses lettering, spacing and the layout of the pages to emphasise the scenes. Something that made me laugh in wonder because I did not expect to have tot turn the book upside down to read it further.
Sometimes the pages only contain a few words making you turn the pages quickly and feeling the tension of the scene and the feelings of the characters in twofold.
As well as I think that it's interesting that the deeper Navidson goes into the house the more unstable Johnny becomes. I really like how there are so much parallels between the essay and Johnny's life, and between the characters in the essay itself (although the essay seems to be mainly written to find those parallels). I do love the editors' footnotes, they made me laugh. And in the end I didn't mind Johnny's footnotes that much because they became less frequent and more focused aka he stopped doing drugs and stopped talking about how much he fucked. And I did like reading his last notes on the book.

In any case I basically read a rather interesting essay instead of a book so 4 stars because it's just really creative and I love creativity 

And as I heard there are some secrets in it too as well as an dedicated community to find it. Not my cup of tea but maybe for others the reason to read it. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

carrionkid's review against another edition

5.0

Unlike nothing I've ever read before, though I definitely think I need a reread or two to fully glean all the layers to it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Rape, and Blood

Minor: Cancer, Vomit, and Medical content