Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

19 reviews

bungo_books's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Really great read. Very dense, much of the reading is very purposefully complex and confusing. Hell, even describing the main topics of the book is a complicated matter when you're constantly expected to question the author of the text.

In short, it's a book with zero reliable narrators, written like it's a profound literary research paper. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

blueshirt's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Interesting premise and structure, but I found most of the characters unlikable and kind of boring. 

- Johnny Truant's sections are so self-indulgent/-congratulatory. I have no patience for some misogynistic twerp's #sodeep musings.

- I'm never actually convinced that Navidson is a good guy. He just makes one stupid, selfish choice after another. I'm glad Karen cheated on him and I think she should do it again.

- Karen's character is defined solely by her beauty (or lack thereof, at the end) and how much she Needs A Man. Gross.

- The children are not real characters, they are given no depth or development. 

- Reston has no purpose beyond talking about how cool Navidson is.

- Tom is great, no notes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Child abuse, Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicide, Drug abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Pedophilia

bottleofink's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Animal death, Infidelity, Child abuse, Gore, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Animal cruelty

honest_soupe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely amazing read. Wish they had let me think my thoughts on characters were original though! Please stop saying exactly what I was thinking about people. It makes it harder for me to feel smart about it lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child abuse, Cursing, Violence, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Addiction, Grief, Sexual content, Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Gaslighting, Cultural appropriation, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

will be writing an essay on this. will be also have the greatest bit where I will point at any house with leaves nearby for any reason and say "OMG it's just like that thing!!!"

honeyvenom's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Cursing, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

ethanlaz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Vomit, Sexual content, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Violence, Suicide, Medical trauma, Dementia, Cursing, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gore, Death, Cancer, Body horror, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Infidelity, Medical content, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

chloebowie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Well… it was good enough to keep turning the page but bad enough to where I couldn’t tell you what happened 😅 it was everything and nothing all at once. Nothing was ever really resolved. It’s just stopped. 

If this weren’t a buddy read I don’t think I would’ve finished it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Animal death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape

quixie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Abandonment, Gun violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Bullying, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Suicide, Blood, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Death, Gore, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

abandonedmegastructure's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

House of Leaves explores the very limits of what can be done with ink on paper.

A suspenseful tale of exploration into the unknown is enhanced with layers of symbolism, discussion, meta-discussion, and mythological allusions. The result is an enthralling novel, fundamentally mysterious yet deeply compelling, which invites its reader to join in the analytical discussions that take center stage from time to time. The book plays with page structure, footnotes, the fourth wall, text markup, and anything else you could imagine. It goes beyond having an unreliable narrator and straight-up invites us to question the narrator's existence; just another part of the fun it's having exploring the concept of writing (not writing - chronicling? depicting? recording? knowing?) itself. It touches on themes of cosmic horror, religion, mental illness, and the human subconscious, though if I had to pin down a single theme I'd say this is a book about absences first and foremost.

I realize I might be making this book sound like a pretentious tome that's more concerned with being clever than being readable. And to be fair, there are some pseudo-academic bits that go on for too long, and they're the reason I'm not giving this a 5/5. But the various narratives interwoven through the book are insanely well-written and evocative (not to mention disturbing), the main characters slowly reveal more of their fascinating yet flawed selves, and the references and metatextual elements add to their stories, rather than distracting from them. Even when viewed purely as a story, House of Leaves holds up extremely well; everything else is just a bonus.

A final thought: I've seen a lot of people call this a horror novel, and I get where they're coming from, but I found the text intriguing more than scary even at the most uncanny points. If you've been put off by the horror label, and would otherwise have considered reading the book, I encourage you to try it out anyway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Child abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Blood, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Child death, Sexual violence, Body horror, Rape, Infidelity, Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Suicide

mobymaize's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

This book is very important. Reading it, at times, is very much a challenge. I had fun with it, despite taking me nearly 5 months to read. Take into advice the first line of House of Leaves: This is not for you, but the novel is also very interesting, so you might want to read it. Be prepared to flip your book upside down, and to be interrupted in the middle of a description of abyssal hallways leading on for infinity with a (NSFW)

very explicit scene where a main character gets a finger up his butt and cums from it

. Great & wild book, will never read again /pos.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mental illness, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Vomit

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Lesbophobia