Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon

23 reviews

lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.75

in the 1970s, Vi and her brother live with their brilliant psychiatrist grandmother, who brings home a new "sister" for them.  Iris is mute and has injuries.  Slowly she comes out of her shell and the children have a club where they imagine they will hunt monsters.  In modern day, now as adults, one of the sisters is hunting the other one, who she suspects of being a serial killer.  Sounds good, right?  Unfortunately, it is pretty obvious which sister is the latter-day narrator, so the surprise falls flat.  There are a couple of other twists that are pretty obvious.  There is a fake out regarding the murdering sister that was nicely done, but then it is walked back.  On one hand, I think the book needed that final punch, but on the other hand, I am not sure how I feel about it affecting the message of the book about people being the real monsters. 

If people are the real monsters (and Iris believes there are real supernatural monsters too), and you have to kill your monster to start over and live, aren't you also becoming a monster?  Are we all just monsters?  If so, doesn't that lessen the impact of the "real" monsters among us? Aren't we supposed to be able to rise above our upbringings?  You could argue the grandmother created a monster in Vi, but Iris turned out more or less fine. As I said, I am ambivalent.

I would have vastly preferred we spend more time with the adult sister.  The story in the past kind of dragged on, since it was super obvious what was happening with both Iris and Vi.  I was also hoping for more from the Mary Shelley angle, but oh well.  This was a fine book and I enjoyed reading it, but I literally forgot I had even read it two days later, which is reflected in the rating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Classism

libraryghost's review against another edition

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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Mental illness

gondorgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

magellen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

This was my second read from McMahon, a sort of 'well maybe a different book is better' attempt after my first choice was lacking. I will go ahead and say this is not a horror or a thriller but only a novel, trying to thrill on occasion.

Meaning 😑 this will be my last attempt on McMahon- honestly it's probably a stylistic thing that some people like, but this author drowns you in rehashing and scenery. If the scenery was important, I'd be less bothered, but she will list off every object in a dang room and where they sit and back info on them whether or not its pertinent to the plot. I can't tell you what the majority of characters look like because they have such fleeting moments that lack individual voice but I could probably draw you a map of the setting. Wish I was kidding.

My other issue is while breadcrumbs are all good and well - bc twists SHOULD have clues that lead to them, so an audience may or may not guess on first read- guessing multiple twists within the first couple chapters is...disappointing.

If you think you know who Lizzie is, who the *monster* is, what happened to the girls, and who Vi is early on, buddy you probably guessed right bc the twists are as transparent as cellophane. By the time matters roll out in the back quarter of the book it's just like yeah yeah get it over with. The sociopathic freight train chugs right along and I feel like you'd have to be entirely zoned out not to catch it early.

If you like McMahon's style, you'll probably enjoy this book. It is stronger than The Invited in some ways ('cause god that romance/couple was grating to read, yeesh did they even like one another) but also lacking in voice. The Invited had a darker tone by focusing on violence against women and had more passion for the matter, while CotH is more

whoops grandma turned out to be a eugenicist but we still love her sort of and guess all the people she hurt are just up shit creek.

 

Happy to say this author just isn't for me, but if you want sprawling settling description about bland interiors, maybe she'll be a match for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Murder

chooper454's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, and Murder

Minor: Kidnapping and Death of parent

espressoreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

This book throws the unexpected at a person.  It takes eugenics, an aspect of the world past, and likely present, which Americans like to pretend didn’t happen in the USA, and puts it in your face from the perspective of kids.  I was surprised multiple times in this book.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Medical trauma, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content

lpdx's review

dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical content, and Kidnapping

Minor: Addiction, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

molsreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

An awesome, spooky and twisty take on "Frankenstein." It was so good that I often forgot that it was a retelling. It's so good at standing on its own in that way. I feel like there isn't a lot that I can say about this book without giving stuff away - I went into it mostly blindly and all I knew was that it had creepy kids and that it was a Frankenstein retelling. That's all I needed. So, if that's all you need, pick it up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia and Incest

Minor: Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual content, Excrement, Abortion, and War

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Pregnancy