Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

8 reviews

mattyb2851's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

If you are a fan of existential, cosmic horror, stories about love (and can it prevail?), textbooks, unreliable narration, and exploring the strengths of printed media, the do I have a book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Addiction, Suicide, and Chronic illness

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

cgoiris's review against another edition

This is a difficult one to give stars. I sort of think I get what the author was trying to do. I can see multiple layers to the story, from criticising media critics to trying to evoke a deeply unsettled feeling that follows the reader beyond the book.

But there were also parts I despised. Why does every woman in this book have to be profoundly damaged? Why does Bambi never really get a personality beyond motherly concern for our main character? Why does the author try to establish deep and bleak backstories with a couple of sentences, multiple times? It's already a 700 page book, trees died for this, don't be shy, flesh it out. 

I'm gonna try to do the content warnings but I'm probably gonna forget a few because there's A LOT. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug use, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization

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

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

badtzmarus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Very cool book! It contains several themes and everyone that has read it leaves with different perspectives, great if you want a more long-term book, you really shouldn't rush into finishing it, or if you want to revisit it months after you first read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Grief, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

Some of the johnny parts are kinda tense and may make you uncomfortable, but will make sense to really get the guy later on, I'd advise you to not skip anything, but if graphic sex scenes are not your thing go for it.

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.0

I liked it! Sometimes I struggled with its rather intentional meandering structure but I appreciated the maze it was laying out and what it was meant to evoke from the reader. I also appreciated the ways in which the book itself felt like a metaphor for the psyche of its dual book within a book authors. I will say, the book is pretty damn misogynistic, so I struggled with that a bit. But overall, it was a fun ride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Sexual content, Violence, Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

atalea's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

3.5

This book was a real challenge to finish and that's coming from someone who is used to reading big books. The main story told through the Navidson Record may have been one of the best horror stories I have ever read and easily deserves 5 stars. Unfortunately, I did not care much for Johnny's story and his ramblings and even though I'm used to reading academic papers, at times this was just too much, drawing me completely out of the story. The ending fell a bit flat to me and some of the appendices also felt pointless or remained unexplained. Still, the genius of the Navidson Record prevents me from giving it a score lower than a 3.5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Minor: Rape