Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould

8 reviews

insincerelycait's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Sexual assault

joliebean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

cleot's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror and Religious bigotry

Wilderness therapy,

past foster abuse, past csa, doppelganger horror, doppelgangers take form of people most likely to cause psychological torture, intentional triggering

gueniverefey's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

dougyounkin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

sonyagale's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book may be a little triggering for some, but it was absolutely fantastic and very well worth reading about the hard topics covered. It didn’t exactly go into much detail but there is a lot of mention of abuse, drug use, etc. that has a lot to do with the main plot of the book. That doesn’t give away anything by the way, just wanted to mention it!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

soobooksalot's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

What The Woods Took went into the unexpected.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my eARC for review!
Teenagers Devin, Ollie, Sheridan, Hannah, and Aiden have been labelled as "troubled". They have been forceably sent to the Revive Teen Rehabilitation Program to hike, camp, and survive their way to better life choices.
I was expecting a straightforward plot with an inside look at the TTI and wildnerness programs for struggling youth. 
What The Woods Took started out that way, but veered in a whole other direction. 
The Idaho forests have an eerie, unnatural quality to them - void even of animal sounds. Sights from the teen's past traumas emerge from the shadows. I was constantly second-guessing as to who - or what - could be trusted. 
This was my first read from author Courtney Gould, and I easily enjoyed her writing style and the elements incorporated. 
Released Dec. 10.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Death of parent

seriouslynerdy's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I was able to read this before release thanks to NetGalley!  

 

I want to start off by saying I LOVED this book, it was right up my ally with horror/ psychological thriller vibes. This is a YA based book if you read this book and think these kids act immature or it’s juveniles themes (it’s a ya book of course its going to have juvenile themes) but the YA aspect does not take away the horror of this book for me it made it more intense thinking of 13-17 year old taken away to stay in the woods for 50 days is terrifying in itself and what lies beyond as they continue their journey just add to the horror. 

 

This book is going to be in my top 5 reads of 2024 and I cannot wait for it to be released to re-read it it’s a physical book and annotate it and go back finding hidden horrors that I missed while hyper-focused of these kids survival. I could not read this book at night because living near the woods I was freaked out so this was strictly read during daylight hours, if you can read horror books at night then sleep soundly I am also scared of you. 

 

 

This is a slow paced book about 5 teenagers Devin, Aiden, Hannah, Sheridan and Ollie  who all only have one thing in common they were all sent to stay in the woods for 50 days under the the supervision of two leaders who are going to “change” the teenagers before they leave the woods. Things don’t go as planned but everyone who leaves the woods is changed forever, maybe for the better or maybe for the worst. This book showcase every bump you're scared of in the night, every shadow in the woods that have a face but you shake it off because that’s absurd, every fear you’ve kept buried because you're not scared to admit the truth to others but the truth to yourself. 

 

This book is a dual POV between Ollie and Devin. Ollie who is easy to love, easy to like and you want to protect him from the darkness.  Devin is harder to like she’s rough, she’s full of anger, she is the protector not the girl who needs  protecting. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail