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juliaraimondi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Vomit, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Abortion and Fire/Fire injury
kelseygrachek's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Vomit
Moderate: Blood, Pregnancy, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Child death, and Confinement
Minor: Cannibalism and Abortion
ambermarz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
What I liked: the detailed descriptions of gore/body horror/drug trips. the character's battle with addiction. the descriptions of mushrooms.
What I didn't like: the characters. I didn't feel for Erin at all. There was a lack of characterization for her outside her obsession with Silas. I don't even know what she looks like. The pace of the book in general. How all over the place the different themes were.
I was too lost in the multiple themes going on to see the
Overall I wanted to like it, but it fell flat. About halfway through I was really excited to see where it went, then it just went downhill. Meh. Bummer from an author I like.
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Drug abuse, Self harm, Cannibalism, Violence, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Vomit, Sexism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Child death and Death
shereadytoread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The plot is full of despair, body horror, social commentary, and genuinely creepy moments that made my skin crawl. Reminders of the death and horror that is part of our country's unfortuante history and current every day life.
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Grief, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Child death and Vomit
Minor: Mental illness
mouse42'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction and Body horror
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Cannibalism
dustghosts's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
+ great narration from the audiobook reader
+ a fantastic writing style that meanders through the slow moments well, evocative and high-tension at more horrific/scary scenes, overall I would read more from this author
+ some truly scary visuals / moments that felt almost made for the screen
+ at least nearer the beginning, a really well-balanced homage to a place with a complicated history, past and present
+ excellent depiction of a toxic, all-consuming relationship, and a complicated and nuanced depiction of what grief for that might look like
o not a particularly likeable cast, and the other three characters in the friend group were more vividly and interestingly depicted than our narrator, Erin. a few characters call her “empty,” though, and I think this blankness might have been purposeful
- this book is trying to handle a lot of difficult topics (grief, history and how to reckon with it, toxic relationships and friendships, addiction, the creation of “ghost stories,” and some more minor ones). sometimes it does this really well, but more often feels muddled and the pace suffers for it. not that a book can’t focus on multiple themes, but I think that leaning stronger into one or two could have helped the book to feel more focused and purposeful. (For example: we spend a lot of time talking about facing history and giving it its due, but that seems to fall by the wayside the further we get into the book, and feels unsatisfying to be reminded of again at the end when we haven’t looked dead on at any of it in some time.)
- I’m not sure whether this is a helpful or harmful depiction of addiction, and I don’t really have the tools to analyze that— will have to learn and listen more to do so properly. lots of reviewers say this does a good job of portraying the “horrors of addiction,” the destructive patterns and loss of self that can come with. to me, on a surface level, this feels often very sensationalized and demonizing of drug users— not unlike those books we would have been obsessed with in middle school. having the narrator be an addict herself, and the natural marriage of genre to subject, helps some, but I have a major issue reconciling the moralizing of the epilogue with
- as a sucker for repetition, I still felt that this book leaned a bit too heavily on it at times, and it just felt like when you start nodding along to someone as they’re speaking to you just to see them through
anyway. it was an interesting and mostly-enjoyable read, but felt like it went off the rails at some point and I’m not sure that it ever made it all the way back on
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Drug use, Gaslighting, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Abortion, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Gore
joann_l's review against another edition
3.0
Was I wrong in the most deliciously skin-crawling way! Ghost Eaters reads like a mature Young Adult novel that merges the horror of fresh-out-of-college, emergence-from-the-chrysalis loss with the ghostly supernatural. Chapman's prose fits the YA genre; this novel borders on YA and contemporary adult horror. It feels like YA to me because, well, I'm not in my early twenties like the characters are. But the events and themes in the novel are better suited for an adult (if young adult) audience. There are mature themes here of death, grief, the loss of friends, parents, and loved ones. There is the threat of loss of the self: perception is a two-way mirror in this novel, and you're never quite sure which side of the glass you're on.
The story follows a young woman and is told from her perspective. Erin is a privileged, educated woman. She has family, family money, family connections, but despite this, she flounders in life. That's the first horror, one that is banal and familiar to many. Erin is part of a group of friends; their leader has floundered in worse ways than Erin. Silas seems to be drowning in a drug-induced depression. When their social circle falls apart as the result of an untimely death, each one of them seeks to find meaning and reconnection in different ways.
Some of them take the task literally.
And that's the second horror of this novel. The dark mental and physical adventure that ensues as Erin, Amaya, and Toby play dangerously with the line between living and dying, the present and the afterlife. I won't ruin this for the reader. Just know that "ghost" in this novel has multiple meanings, and the loss that one associates with death is more than never seeing someone again.
A worthy Halloween horror read that haunts in multiple ways!
Graphic: Cannibalism, Confinement, Grief, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Torture, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Blood, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Violence
abanks's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction
Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting
Minor: Alcohol, Excrement, Abortion, and Child death