Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

9 reviews

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

A classic teen horror novel, familiar troupes are elevated by themes of regret, gossip, presumptions, collective loss, and self-acceptance in spite of regret. Not to mention that it focuses on the interior lives of the victims instead of the villain. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Death, Medical trauma, Gore, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Stalking, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, and Racism

Minor: Drug use, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Domestic abuse

The nature of the gore involves body mutilation, and there is graphic violence with knives. Narcissism in children and adults is explored throughout the text.

cady_sass's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.25

I am so mad at myself for finishing this book. This had every reason to be a DNF, but I convinced myself that there was a huge twist coming and it never did. 

The killer is revealed a little more than halfway in. I should’ve stopped there. But it was so early?! Surely it can’t be that simple? Alas, surely it can. And SO BORING and lackadaisical in the reveal too. For what? Oh, and the mysterious and dark and super top secret backstory of our main character that they hint towards the whole time? Huge let down, entirely irrelevant, and the actual core of the problem with that backstory is never addressed, at all, by any character even in the present. On top of that, all of the characters are unlikable (not in a good / on purpose way) or are completely random (as in, I don’t care about them or know anything about them) so the whole time you’re either like “ugh” or “who? Am I supposed to care?”

I feel so swindled. 1 star for the body horror and sorta graphic murdering, moderately impressive for a YA thriller. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Child death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Violence, and Bullying

Hazing, underage drinking, divorce

kshertz's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a scary one for me! There’s a killer on the loose. They rearrange your house and then kill you and rearrange your body. No one is safe from the killer. But who is it? 

I loved the characters and the development of the plot. Some parts described the deaths in way too much detail for me! But it was intriguing and kept me reading nonstop so I definitely recommend it!

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Stalking, Torture, Murder, Bullying, Death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

rosesofthespring's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's tense, it's challenging, and I ended up really liking the characters. Stephanie Perkins has a knack for making characters feel multi-dimensional in a short time, which is invaluable for the slasher genre. It makes the escapes feel earned, and the deaths feel like a true loss. I was surprised to learn that this was published before The Woods Are Always Watching, since I feel like this one avoids the pitfalls that bothered me in The Woods.

I hope we get to see more horror from Perkins in the future.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Medical content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, Murder, Stalking, Gaslighting, Vomit, Alcohol, and Cursing

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Racism, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Homophobia, Sexism, and Sexual content

aformeracceleratedreader's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

Knocking off half a star because the ending was not what I wanted and I'm not huge on white authors writing main characters that are poc (although this one was fairly well written compared to other poc written by white authors).

the fact Ollie is actually alive feels kind of...meh. like too happy an ending? When her friend was nearly fully decapted and murdered, her other friend seriously stabbed, another girl with a sliced thigh, and Makani gets to keep a boyfriend who apparently is more important than her critically injured friend? It would've been better if he didn't make it for me. Especially since the injured surviving friend kind of did a miracle "saves the day" kind of move to help our main girl deal the final blow. which was going to already make the end a happy-ish ending without "oh my god the boy I've only know for 3 months and am unhealthily obsessed with is alive!!!" Does that make me a jerk? Maybe

Overall though, super good thriller/slasher. Love and hate small Midwest town settings as someone from a small Midwest town. Seriously gave me the creeps because the setting is so similar to where I'm at. Read this is one day. Stayed up super late to finish it. Kind of gives me some similar vibes to The Mary Shelley Club. I would be willing to read more from this author 100%. Def check content/trigger warnings tho.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Medical content, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Vomit, and Cursing

theshrew's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Vomit

bookishgoob's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

“People live through such pain only once; pain comes again, but finds a tougher surface.” the creepiness of this book starts IMMEDIATELY. some parts were slow but this book kept me entertained throughout. the reveal happens about a little more than half way through which i didn’t know if i liked, but i actually did enjoy reading about how they handled knowing who the killer was rather than having the book end after finding out who the killer was. this author is well known for romance, so there is a sweet aspect of romance between the main character and another. some of the scenes very truly captured the feeling off a crispy cold fall in the midwest and that made my heart happy. it’s a great read for if you want to read a scary book but aren’t too prepared to actually be fully scared. it’s got scary elements but it isn’t horrifying. overall, i’ll give it a 3.5/5. i didn’t hate it, i actually really liked it, but i don’t think i liked it enough to rate it a full 4. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Violence

gobo5519's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Overall, i enjoyed this book. I love the chilling, cold Nebraska atmosphere that the author created. The death scenes were also super intense and a few of them *actually* scared me. The only things that I didn’t enjoy was the slow beginning (which felt more like a romance than a horror) and the dialogue. Sorry, but teenagers really don’t talk like that lol. Overall, I enjoyed!!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

sarah984's review against another edition

funny tense fast-paced

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

2.0

This book felt really amateurishly written, lots of telling us about people without showing anything (I already forget almost every character because you're just fed a paragraph of info about them and then they all act the same way) and tortured metaphors. The killer’s motivation is genuinely ridiculous, as is Makani’s "dark secret" and her romance with Ollie.

A few of the scares involving things being moved around in the houses were creepy, but overall this felt like it was trying to be a slasher and a romance and failing at both.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Stalking, and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Vomit, Torture, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Racism, and Transphobia

There is a detailed scene involving hazing.