Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

False Memory by Dean Koontz

1 review

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

The description of this book is so vague that it's difficult to describe without spoiling anything but I'll try. It's about a collection of characters who start experiencing strange thoughts and finding themselves acting in an unusual manner. We don't have much of an idea of what is causing this until about 30% into the book at which point the story becomes quite dark. What follows is a journey in which our protagonists much solve the mystery of what is happening to them without knowing who they can trust and knowing they can't even trust themselves.
This book was a slow burn and had a healthy mixture of dramatic irony and surprises. Towards the end it turns into a real thriller. The characters were colourful. I enjoyed it.

There's a dark tone to this book and some parts are pretty upsetting as you might expect from a psychological horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child abuse, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Incest, Grief, Gun violence, and Medical content

Minor: Excrement and Adult/minor relationship

All these trigger warnings make it sound worse than it is. This book is about a person who is mind controlling other people via hypnosis to make them believe and do whatever he wants and then have no memory afterwards unless permitted to.<\spoiler> One of the most graphic and upsetting parts is

when the truth is revealed that a character is being raped under hypnosis. When we see this part, the rapist hypnotizes her and forces her to believe that she's 12 years old and that he is her father, making an already traumatic experience even more shameful and traumatic. She outsmarted him by hiding a camera in the room so she can find out what is happening when she has no memory but the villain catches on and hypnotizes her to slit her wrists in the bathtub. It's brutal.to.<\spoiler> There is another upsetting scene in which a little girl commits suicide in a very graphic and "adult" way however we don't see this happen, it's something the characters just hear about afterwards. The dog lives.