Reviews tagging 'Grief'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

50 reviews

nerdkitten's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Drug use, Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Addiction, Excrement, Sexual assault, Body horror, Child death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Misogyny, Ableism, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Abortion, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Incest, Racism, Suicide attempt, War, and Vomit

ivana's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• 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

The reading experience of this was like nothing I've ever read and probably will ever read again. I loved how it mirrored what was happening in the story. I actually enjoyed Johnny's footnotes and the rambling nonsensical tone a lot more than most seem to have and I had a harder time with the pretentious fake analytical tangents from The Navidson Record

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Drug use, Addiction, Child death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Colonisation, Ableism, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cancer, Rape, and Infidelity

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

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

book.

It’s

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normal  | ust a normal book. It’s just  | book. 

It’s just  | a normal book. It’s just a n  | a 

normal  | ormal book. It’s just a norm | book. 

It’s just  | al book. It’s just a normal b | a 

normal  | ook. It’s just a normal book | book. 

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normal  | s just a normal book. It’s ju  | book. 

It’s just  | st a normal book. It’s just a | a 

normal  | normal book. It’s just a nor  | book. 

It’s just  | mal book. It’s just a normal | a 

normal  | book. It’s just a normal boo | book. 

It’s just  | k. It’s just a normal book. It | a 

normal  | ‘s just a normal book. It’s ju | book. 

It’s just  | st a normal book. It’s just a | a 

normal  | normal book……………………. | book.

It’s 

      just

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                normal

                             book

                                       .

               

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

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

lietotheangels's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Cursing, Grief, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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!!!"

literallygriffin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

just as good as people say it is. read house of leaves right now & go into it blind. trust me on this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Stalking, Violence, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Child abuse, and Suicide

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

rmbrndt's review

dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Ultimately a glorified SCP but the in text analyses and humanity elevate it. 
Personally I don't think the formatting does anything for this book - the footnotes work well but shifting the text around is unnecessary.
So misogynistic at parts it made me infuriatingly angry which easily secured that I will never read another MZD book ever again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Pedophilia, Grief, Animal death, Suicide, Child death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder