Reviews tagging 'Rape'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

120 reviews

noimjace's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gore

Minor: Rape

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

singrequiem's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

2.5

I normally DEVOUR books. Especially dark, challenging, flawed, experimental books. This book, no joke, took me literal YEARS to finish, primarily just because of how much Jonny Truant sucks. He sucks hard. I went on forums to ask people to convince me not to just skip all of his notes and story. I’m glad I’m finally through it. I can appreciate the mastery that Danielewski has over the intricacies of his manuscript, the attention to detail, the world building, the control of tone (especially when switching between academic and informal writing styles) but this book was just a slog. I could rant for paragraphs, but I will try and boil it down to: it’s really not that creepy, and the most interesting parts are buried in jargon and presented dryly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Confinement, Mental illness, Drug use, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Addiction

Moderate: Sexual violence and Rape

Minor: Gun violence and Vomit

Existential dread and unanswered questions

stungobungo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Hundreds of pages of pseudo intellectual bullcrap
Out of nowhere
a dagger slips between my ribs
Someone pushed it into my heart
It is Mark Z. Danielewski!
And he has written the most beautiful constellation of words i've ever had the pleasure of reading.
And he put them right here, in this book!

Absolute rollercoaster and i do think this book deserves the hype. Maybe it even deserves more hype. I thought the "wacky" layouts would be overused but they were used very appropriately and bore thematic relevance. And as a sad "academic" the "pseudo intellectual" aspect was fun and rewarding for my taste. Also loved the fact that Truant gives you hints and tricks on how to read the book, maybe they're too subtle to be picked up as actual advice, maybe it's just words i assigned meaning they never bore in the first place. I don't know, i'm loopy, emotionally distraught and i will need to revisit this review for a more distanced star rating and making sure i don't make an absolute fool of myself.

i rate this book:

3 "i'm afraid to go to bed"
1

"i'm pretty sure the wall behind me just disappeared. And i am too afraid to look"

1 Secret message found
3 Cries (Good ones)

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape

haileyhardcover's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It’s just a normal book. 🙂

It’s just a normal book. 

It’s just a normal book. 

It’s JUST a normal book.

      It’s just a NORMAL book.

It’s just a normal BOOK. 

It’s just a normal

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                                       .

               

It’s just a normal book. 🙃

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual content, Confinement, Death, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Mental illness, Suicide, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Gun violence, Cancer, Death of parent, Drug use, Eating disorder, Excrement, Murder, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, and Grief

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

britt_blank_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Drug use, Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual violence, and Violence

heidi_may91's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Child death, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

madyou's review

dark mysterious tense

4.25

This was a difficult book for me to rate. Just like Johnny I found myself losing hours just to find out what happens next. But there were times where I couldn’t get thru some of the ramblings, or the overly analytical chapters. I was mostly interested in ‘film’ itself and the house that was bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. I still have so many questions, so many whys or hows even though I know the answers are never given. There are only theories of what it might mean or could be. 

Overall this book was tense, freaky, and definitely questionable at times. I loved it and wish there was more. It might take me weeks for me to fully process everything I just read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Addiction, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Drug abuse, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

siggney's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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, Drug use, Addiction, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault

yilishabai's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

Remarkably original and a lot of worthwhile work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcohol and Cursing

Minor: Rape