Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

104 reviews

hellokatya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.5

i wanted to like this book; i went in so excited but it really just fell flat. i had read in someone else’s review about the blog posts being out of place, and considering there wasn’t much done with them — and it spoiled the biggest twist — i am also not a fan. i feel like the story being told on chronological order, through the unreliable perspective of an 8 year old would’ve served the book a lot better. saddened to see the loss of the potential it had.
 try hard to pick back up once i’d put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body horror, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I don’t know how I feel about this book. It was interesting and the way it was told was intriguing, but it kind of just made me sad. Also I’m pretty sure this is classified as horror, but there was maybe like one creepy part(that I skipped over because I do not need to read graphic details about a 14 year old masturbating). Honestly it was just depressing to read about these girls and the mental illness and honestly the annoying father(which is kind of the point, but I just didn’t really expect that). I also did not like the ending like it was just so anticlimactic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

An edge-of-your-seat-cant-put-this-down read diving into the horror tropes of possession and exorcism and highlighting the problematic history of exorcism within the Church. I loved the characters and trajectory of this book. The inserts of the horror blog examining the eventual reality show in the story was so clever. I could not put this book down and I think I'll be thinking of this one for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse and Forced institutionalization

ilaxaria's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Excrement

Minor: Pedophilia, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

percys_panda_pillow_pet's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Horrifyingly tragic, A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay is filled to the brim with terrible scenes, all told from the point of view of the youngest character to witness everything. I just felt so bad the entire time reading this for not just Marjorie and Merry, who were just kids, but also characters like Sarah and Ken; who while aren't blameless entirely, are forced to witness a lot of this horror with seemingly no agency to fight against it. 

I also felt really bad that the one who I felt more creeped out by was not Marjorie, with her gruesome stories and actions, but Merry, who seemed to take glee from her and her sister's trauma. Merry should be a somewhat reliable narrator as a kid, aside from her shoddy memory. There isn't a reason to suspect her of leaving things out. However, I felt wary all the same as Merry became known for being an exaggerator and a storyteller. There's a few reveals later on in the book that highlight this fact and it just made me very suspicious of someone who is just a very traumatized child/person. 

Tremblay has done a fantastic job here with this book. A reader questioning a narrator's true feelings makes for good conversation and deeper reading. I am so torn with Merry as a character. My initial feelings were as stated above: Merry is creepy for the way she expresses her thoughts on the situation and her sister. However, after I finished the book, I couldn't help but think that maybe Merry was just trying to find her own way of understanding what all happened in her childhood, everything that led up to the greatest tragedy of her life. Afterward, all I could see was a girl-now-adult, still struggling to figure out why her sister acted the way she did, what her sister could've been thinking throughout it all.

When I started this book, the summary had not prepared me for the gruesome descriptions Tremblay employed, nor how sad a story this really was. I just felt so bad for Marjorie, more than anything. She didn't deserve anything that happened to her, and needed to be taken out of the home and cameras that were definitely making things worse. I am curious to know of other's opinions of the portrayal of schizophrenia in this book. I did not touch on it as I am not an expert on the condition, nor do I have the condition. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement and Domestic abuse

simp4sneks's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

onlyflames's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent

august_18's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Bullying and Gaslighting

kingcrookback's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

This book had me for the vast majority of its duration. The themes of memory and nostalgia; Marjorie and teenage girlhood and not being believed or taken seriously; childhood, facing the unknown, and pasts you can't return to. The story progressed in accordance with the sort of tropes and motifs typically associated with both possession narratives and stories about reminiscence. The blog posts dedicated to deconstructing the Barretts' reality show vis à vis popular horror media put a fascinating turn on the question of memory and moving on from trauma. Even though the narrative was on the side of Marjorie being a mentally ill young girl, some of Merry's description of her memories is genuinely chilling.

The only thing I can't get over is that the ending - and the reveal - felt so incredibly abrupt. I feel like we got very little buildup to the reveal and no time to process its impact on both the narrative as well as our perception of the story. I don't know. I think I need to sit with this a bit longer, maybe convince a friend to read it so I can talk to them about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest and Sexual content

raven31's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Vomit and Alcohol