Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

47 reviews

giulianalb99's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Rape, Self harm, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, Blood, Drug use, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cursing and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

danaleelin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Vomit, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death, Cursing, Animal death, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Child death, Violence, Alcohol, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Torture, Suicide, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

stewartj0421's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was SLOW. I definitely struggled to get through this at times, yet the story itself always made me pick it back up. I knew the ending would be worth it, and it was. I must add that there were an abundance of editing errors that should not have made it into the final print of the book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Child death, Violence, Death, Vomit, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault, Gore, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Torture, Stalking, Grief, Murder, Mental illness, Cursing, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use

featherinthewind's review against another edition

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

5.0

I read this book in one sitting. It was like I couldn’t get enough and I needed more. It was sickening and suspenseful with the perfect mix of horror and mystery.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Vomit, Violence, Suicide, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Death, Alcoholism, Body horror, Alcohol, Child death, and Medical content

maddieeemaz's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

Totally not what i was expecting but i loved it. Great horror/mind-bending concepts and very detailed gore. Ngl low key enjoyed this book so much. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

Moderate: Suicide and Child death

Minor: Alcohol and Cursing

snowydaze's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Child death, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Violence, Torture, Death of parent, Drug use, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol

bookbelle5_17's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Review of House of Hollow

By: Krystal Sutherland

            Iris and her older sisters Viv & Grey disappeared for 31 days when visiting their grandparents in Scotland, but when they came back, they weren’t the same.  They looked different and they now had a special ability to put people under their spell.  They also don’t remember what happened.  One day Grey goes missing, so Iris and Viv go searching for her as they piece together what happened to them all those years ago.

            A dark modern fairytale with themes of sisterhood weaves through this novel about the Hollow sisters and what happened to them when they disappeared.  It is creepy and undeniably atmospheric as you feel unsettled along with Iris, because everything is only revealed bit by bit.  It made me intrigued to know what happened as I turned each page.  The graphic descriptions of the rotting plants, beautiful white flowers, and ants creeping directly out of their flesh is eerie and shivering inducing.  There is one point where it is thrown up by one, so be warned if you don’t have a strong stomach, it might be gag worthy.  Iris is a good protagonist as she is someone, who is still innocent, but not entirely naïve.  She’s likable and not annoying, taking action, when necessary, but still hopeful for them as she tries to stay loyal to her divided family.  The character of Tyler started out as annoying, but I grew to like him as a secondary character.  I didn’t hate any characters as they were all sympathetic, though they might not have made the best choices.  There was a twist during the climax that I thought was really good and Sutherland built it up rather nicely.  I didn’t read this in the Spring (maybe in the evening) or Autumn, but it does feel like a perfect read for those seasons

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Death of parent, Violence, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Bullying, Murder, Suicide, and Vomit

ohennui's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Body horror, Blood, Suicide, Cursing, and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, and Violence

rain_baby's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Suicide, Cursing, and Sexual assault

Minor: Kidnapping

vigil's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

what a simmering disappointment. to get the positives out of the way, the atmosphere of the book is crafted masterfully. the descriptions are lush and the writing style is clear and concise while still being beautiful to read. the character work was mostly okay (except in iris, and a bit in vivi who i'll get to later) and i think grey hollow is the shining example of that. she is easily the smartest, cruelest, and most interesting character in the book, and balances it out by being incredibly compassionate, and protective of her loved ones, her sisters. for the first 200+ pages this book had me.

once

they entered the halfway place

my interest began to wane. tyler, who is so unremarkable i forgot to include him in the list of bad character work, is trapped in an evil horrid body horror filled place with iris, who has no discernible personality. i did not care about them individually and i definitely didn't care about them together. everything about this portion of the book is so repetitive that any of its earlier unnerving atmosphere immediately dissipates from how often your told how unnerving it is. 

iris hollow is a shell of a character and waste of a protagonist. she has no character traits aside from being the victim in everything somehow, having her only friend be her mother, and she's not like other girls (namely her sisters, and the popular girls). she has a dissonant picture of morality, especially her own that does not line up with her actions. she chooses (along with vivi, who is barely a character as well) to condemn her elder sister grey for her actions that she a). went along with, b) actively chose to forget about in order to ignore her own culpability, c) continuously benefits from, even as the book ends. i bring this up because for a large portion of the book it had allowed space for ambiguity, power, and for girls to be unlikable, inaccessible, and the like without condemning them. which why i thought the black and white thinking on display was a waste for a book like this. especially when the main character is either culpable, or actively benefiting from the things grey has done.  tossing aside your most interesting character like this was not a narrative choice that i enjoyed nor one that enriched the book imo. where's her introspection about that, or

how her not acting and allowing a TEN YEAR OLD to defend her instead of getting off her ass led to her death.

  it makes the oddest choices on when to gloss over something and when to nail it down, usually in the most nonsensical ways. 

it has representation, if you could even call it that. iris is bisexual, and vivi is a lesbian. there is no romantic plot for really any of the sisters, yet

iris manages to makeout with her missing-possibly dead sister's boyfriend

while vivi gets??? nothing??? the only hint we get at iris liking girls aside from a hamfisted mention of it in the narrative is a

mention of a spin the bottle game played in the past, which leads to a kiss which it almost immediately portrayed in negative light, with a girl who later becomes one of her tormentors.

all in all, this book fell off hard for me towards the end. the plot twist was ultimately unsatisfying in its execution and easily predictable. i'm more disappointed by this one than other ones, because it had excellent potential, especially for the first 200 pages. everything after that after that is just a waste. i think my largest complaint is that sutherland set up a plot that is not fully suited to the genre that it’s in (YA) and would have been a better richer the narrative as an adult or even new adult book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Vomit, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual harassment, and Suicide