Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

19 reviews

singerscientist's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Animal death, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Death of parent, Child abuse, and Child death

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

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

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

chasingpages1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Ableism and Animal death

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

hazelbynature's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Gaslighting, Death, Confinement, Physical abuse, Murder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Incest, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Drug use, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Gun violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, Bullying, Terminal illness, and Cancer

jp_riemersma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Drug abuse

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.