Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

32 reviews

ouijabroad's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content

Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, and Excrement

onironic's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The real horror of this book is the ignorance and stigma surrounding mental illness, and I loved that. It's 100% a horror novel, but not in the conventional way. The main and viewpoint character being an 8-year-old girl amps up the horror and tension, when the reader knows and understands far more of what's happening, but is stuck riding on the shoulder of a child who, understandably, doesn't know enough of what's going on to change what's happening or protect herself from any of it. You see all the failures of the adults around her and can understand exactly how it all gets so bad, and have to helplessly watch these children deal with it as best they can while knowing exactly where it's going.  This book doesn't hand any information to you whatsover, much less answers, but it will give you plenty of clues. I liked how many of the chapters jumped from meta-analysis to the future to the past. It gives context without derailing the story, all of it aiming at a terrible conclusion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Vomit, Murder, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content

Moderate: Self harm, Child abuse, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic relationship

fate_of_ansley's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Body horror, Murder, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, and Death

narom96's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Mental illness, Self harm, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Grief

eep's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

I absolutely hated this book. Its depiction of mental illness is harmful and gross. The author's attempts to be self-aware ultimately fail, and it follows every horrible part of 'possession'. The premise is a bit interesting, and could have worked if the author delved further into the effects of the TV show on the family, specifically Marjorie.

... and didn't have Marjorie ultimately kill herself and her parents, leaving her baby sister to rot..

When the main question of a book is "Is this character possessed or mentally ill?", it's hard to find anything likable about it. It's annoyingly written, and is essentially just trauma porn.

If you're looking for well written horror with investigation of mental illness at the forefront, I highly suggest The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. As a person with mental-illness, that book was almost comforting and beautifully written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug abuse

As a mentally-ill person, this book was incredibly triggering and harmful.

ink_at_heart's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

The plot and characters of this book moved (and scared) me like no book has in a long time. I usually steer clear of possession horror—because it either doesn’t scare me at all or it scares me too much—but I decided to read this one because I kept seeing it recommended on TikTok and curiosity got the best of me. I’m glad I read it—but, man, this book wrecked me.

In A Head Full of Ghosts, Tremblay really establishes and reminds the reader of the bond between Merry and Marjorie, which is what really got to me in this book (though I might have an innate weakness to this story since I’m an older sister myself). Sure, Tremblay isn’t shy on the horror end of things either—I had to take a week-long break from reading it after I finished Chapter 11 because it freaked me out so bad—but the relationship between the sisters and the ending were what really broke me and broke my heart.

It’s been about two weeks since I’ve finished this book, but I still think about it—and I have a feeling it’ll be one of those books that always stays with me.

So, long story short, if you’re looking for a possession horror novel that’s both scary as hell and heartbreaking as hell—look no further!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Blood

Moderate: Drug use, Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Excrement

rachaelallyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Confinement

teafrog's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Religious bigotry, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

ladysanctuary's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Violence, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, and Excrement

dee_riv's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

4.5

It tries a little too hard to Do a Thing™ with the narrative, ultimately becoming a narrative about narrative that manipulates its narrative for the sake of the narrative... but that doesn't stop it from being brilliant, scathing, and, finally, heartbreaking.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide attempt, Murder, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse