Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Animal death'
The Haunting Season by Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Elizabeth Macneal, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Bridget Collins, Laura Purcell, Natasha Pulley
8 reviews
allisonsmith120's review against another edition
3.5
Moderate: Pregnancy, Animal death, and Sexual content
outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
1) A Study in Black & White: man rents strange house & is haunted by the former owner who has a soft spot for chess.
2) Thwaite's Tenant: woman & her young son try to flee her abusive marriage but end up at a house where the owner's wife disappeared in strange circumstances.
3) The Eel Singers - man who can predict the near future heads to the one spot where he cannot see anything except the present.
4) Lily Wilt - photographer becomes obsessed with the corpse of a young girl he has been hired to photograph for posterity.
5) The Chillingham Chair - haunted wheelchair points to the murder of its former user.
6) The Hanging of the Greens: man is drawn into the strange tale of one of his self-help group attendees.
7) Confinement: late 19th century woman confined in her chamber to give birth is haunted by the tale of a local witch.
8) Monster: man goes looking for dinosaur fossils but who is the real monster?
The Chillingham Chair is the best of these stories & was written by Laura Purcell. The others are all really strange & not really very well developed & they left me with an odd sense of disappointment as if there was something missing from all of them.
Graphic: Confinement, Pregnancy, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness
heather_freshparchment's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Animal death, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Sexual content
Minor: Vomit
maxineee's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, and Rape
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Death, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
izzyhallow's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
My ranking from favourite to least would be:
Monster
Confinement
The Eel Singers
Lily Wilt
The Chillingham Chair
A Study in Black and White
Thwaite's Tennant
The Hanging of the Greens
It made me chuckle how the (living) men in these stories were often the scariest ghouls.
When adding content warnings I realise that the book covers a lot of sensitive ground over the eight stories. I would class the majority of these instances as moderate or minor but do proceed with caution.
Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Addiction, and Infidelity
Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, Rape, Child death, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Suicide, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
cabbagecakes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Child death, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Addiction, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Animal cruelty, Suicide, and Alcoholism
_teoeo's review against another edition
3.25
Was okay but a little too short
Story 2: 3 ⭐
Was unsettling but I'm not sure how I feel about the "abuse"-topic for it could be really triggering especiall with the detailed descriptions
Story 3: 3,5 ⭐
Quite nice, but too short for a propper world building, for it was a bit confusing. Think it would be good as a novel rather that a short story. Good characters and as far as I see it, Six could be autistic? (Update: recently learned that the characters are from one of her books and that makes so much sense!)
Story 4: 2,5 ⭐
Meh...was okay
Story 5: 3,25 ⭐
Quite liked it, wanted to rate ist 3,5 but the ending disappointed a little (not the plottwist but the very end)
Story 6: 4 ⭐
Liked it, would be a great movie, expeciall the parts where he tells about what happened at the farm (and the plottwist!)
Story 7: 4 ⭐
Loved the writing and had a really thrilling atmosphere. It also would be a great (A24) movie
Story 8: 1,75 ⭐
Way to much sexual content for my liking, also my gut turned at the part that seemed to be rape (I don't see how this is necessary as an element of horror.)
All in all the rating is 3,125 and I rounded it up to 3,25 because overall I enjoyed reading the book. Also, I know now that I like anthologies!!
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Abortion, Sexual violence, Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual content
joareads's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
A Study in Black and White is good, I love the writing style and it kept me interested in the story with its slightly freaky atmosphere (four stars).
Thwaite's Tenant is a little strange but interesting and ends in a satisfying way (three stars).
The Eel Singers is very strange and gets very weird at times but I'm glad with how it ends (three stars).
Lily Wilt gets very dark and weird and I'm not that keen on the story, especially the animal death part (three stars).
The Chillingham Chair is a perfect blend of creepy and entertaining with some great characters - a story I thoroughly enjoyed (five stars).
The Hanging of the Greens is confusing - is there supposed to be a message in the story? Nevertheless is was an eerie read but again, there's animal death (three stars).
Confinement is definitely a creepy one and ends in that open ended way with it being up to you to interpret how it all ends. It focuses on post natal psychosis and is quite startling to read (three stars).
Monster is not the story I would have picked to close the book. I didn't enjoy at all and I think it's not creepy, it's disturbing (one star).
A good book to read close to Halloween as the nights get longer and the days colder - definitely a haunting book!
Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Violence, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Mental illness, Death, and Confinement