Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

21 reviews

august_18's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Pedophilia, Suicide, Animal death, Gore, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Minor: Self harm, Abandonment, and Vomit

lyndyntree's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Gore

bababookmatt's review against another edition

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

4.0

This is a character driven book. The protagonist, Judas Coyne, is an aging, pessimistic, misogynistic rock star. Not a character that typically elicits sympathy for me. However, behind the plot we do see growth, and by the end he calls the women he dates by their name, and not just the American state he met them in. Without loving him, he felt real, and earned my respect. The relationship dynamics are excellent. The horror component was a little ho-hum; a ghost haunting. Judas and his entourage are being haunted by a ghost and Hill doesn’t waste time convincing the reader it’s a haunting as opposed to mental illness, natural phenomena, etc. I appreciated this. It’s established and not something that needs doubting or suspicion. There’s a snuff film that Judas owns that is very unsettling, and while it’s mentioned a few times, I struggle with finding how it fits in to the larger story. This didn’t bother me, but I found it to be a loose end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Suicide, Car accident, Death of parent, Drug use, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

outofthepinksky's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Rape, Blood, Self harm, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Fatphobia, Suicide, Animal death, Drug use, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Cursing, and Death of parent

jaedia's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Incest, Medical content, Animal death, Suicide, Violence, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Gaslighting, Death, Blood, Self harm, and Gun violence

Moderate: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Murder, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Abandonment, and Incest

kelseykatem's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

This is a darn good ghost story. It’s mostly only been King novels which actually make me creeped out at night, but this story adeptly painted a chilling ghost I kept seeing out of the corner of my eye. I am not a fan of a lot of the sexual content, but let’s not forget King does this too. I started out genuinely disliking Jude and “Georgia”, but for their individual character arcs, I believe it was very intentional. I did not expect the twist, and as a thriller lover, I also found there to be just the right amount of “gore” and paranormal activity, while still developing the story and characters. I will read another book by Hill, for sure.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and Sexual content

gellyreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.0

I really loved this novel's depiction and imagery of ghosts (the blackout eyes is super haunting and creepy). I also found one scene in this to be fairly disturbing and will make me hesitate to recommend this to anyone. Not to mention the other dark material that is covered in this book.

This book heavily features child abuse, molestation, grooming, age gap relationships, and the dark scene in question involves adults but a mix of sex and violence in a way that made me have to put the book down and walk away it was so disturbing

 
The ending both did and didn't feel desired, and the "familiars" idea I feel like could've been dealt with more. But I had a lot of fun reading this one and am excited to read more of Hill's work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Violence, Gore, Rape, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Sexual violence, Torture, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Gun violence

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Self harm, and Death of parent

hautstuff's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Gore, and Pedophilia

goblinghost_39's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Child abuse, Gore, Suicide, Sexual assault, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, and Murder

chris_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-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

2.75

The "man writing women" vibes were strong in this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Self harm, Pedophilia, Animal death, Incest, Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Misogyny

Minor: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide