Reviews

The Need by Helen Phillips

soph92__'s review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

tigleo's review

dark emotional 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

2.0

A lot of time wasted for a story that ultimately didn't go anywhere. Waz this written exclusively for mothers who have nursed children?

jheb128's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

kstericker's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

kkrato's review

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

jenhurst's review

3.0

Interesting idea, loved the weirdness but if there was a top 5 most annoying children in books this is it. It makes me not want to have children

snazzy_suze's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

This book was simultaneously mundane and tense - I read it an an afternoon. It might be a more interesting and meaningful read to a parent, particularly a parent who birthed and breastfed their children. For me it was just kind of boring and gross to read about the narrator lactating every other page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit

Moderate: Child death and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Car accident

mags9k's review

This book is intense! If you like trying to figure out what is reality and what isn't, go for it...I'm still trying to decide what happened at the end...

ummm_megan's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

bookber's review

4.0

What a strange book. The start of this story is very creepy and thrilling, featuring one of my favourite horror tropes, and I couldn't wait to see where the story would go. I didn't expect it to slow down as much as it did, or for our protagonist Molly to let so much wash over her without a care in the world. I just wanted to shake her and tell her snap out of it and fight for what's hers!

But that's not the point of this story, instead it views what is seemingly a horrific situation through the eyes of a struggling and exhausted mother who is actually kind of okay with what's happening. It's an odd direction to take the story in but I found the commentary on parenting really interesting. I'm not a mother myself but I imagine that this portrayal of both the good and the ugly is quite relatable and a breath of fresh air in a world where parenting is romanticised.

I kept thinking about this book long after I finished it because it felt kind of unsatisfying and unfinished, but I also really liked it and though a lot of it probably went over my head? It's a unique take on the horror genre and I think it will appeal to a readers that enjoy weird, slow paced and ambiguous literary horror.