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dasrach's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Blood, Alcohol, Animal death, Gore, Death, Murder, Suicide, and Violence
antimony's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
AITA for trying to protect my family?
My wife (30sF) and I (30sM) just bought our first house. It needs a lot of work, but we're fine with that. The only problem is our new neighbours. The day we moved in, I went to introduce myself to them and they were hostile from the beginning. They complained about how our house and garden are an eyesore and were passive aggressive the whole time. Later my daughter (4F) was playing in the woods and they terrified her and scolded her as though she was their own child. They also killed a fox and strung it up in the woods. Later they also snuck over and knocked down part of our fence. It was rotten but it was lower on our list of priorities than things like fixing the hole in the roof -- we were going to get to it eventually. Here is where I might be the asshole. I then snuck into <i>their</i> yard and cut down their prized birch trees. But what you have to understand is that they hate us. Later that evening I couldn't sleep and went out into the woods and saw them dancing and doing some sort of pagan ritual. My daughter and I both started getting horrible night terrors after this.The next day, while I was home alone working on the house, a mysterious letter showed up directing me to a "magic practitioner," which I know sounds absolutely mad but I was getting really quite desperate at this point, so I went to see him. He told me the neighbours have cursed me, and I need to dig up the curse tablets in our yard, which I started doing but made my wife extremely angry with me. She doesn't believe me but the neighbours really are out to get us. A couple more days of this, I find more cursed things within the house itself, my wife gets angrier, the neighbours glare menacingly at us, et cetera. My wife told me she couldn't handle my behaviour any longer and was going to take our daughter to her parents' house until I started acting like myself again, but our daughter tripped on a loose floorboard and ended up in the hospital with a terrible infection. I KNOW it's the neighbour's doing. I know it. My wife thinks I'm stark raving mad at this point. The magic practitioner tells me I have to bind the neighbours to release the god they've got trapped to undo the curse, so I do, but TL;DR I am now on trial for their murder. All I wanted to do was keep my family safe from our neighbours. AITA?
if it's not clear like i know the end makes it okay but i think for the solid first half of this book tom was in the wrong. like the whole cutting down the trees thing was INSANE. sure they already had it out for you but like there's no world where that didn't make it worse. i really liked in the author's note where he mentioned that this started as a screenplay bc as i read it i kept thinking "this would make a really good summer horror movie." that all being said i really don't get anyone's motives at all. the character i cared the most abt was gracey
My wife (30sF) and I (30sM) just bought our first house. It needs a lot of work, but we're fine with that. The only problem is our new neighbours. The day we moved in, I went to introduce myself to them and they were hostile from the beginning. They complained about how our house and garden are an eyesore and were passive aggressive the whole time. Later my daughter (4F) was playing in the woods and they terrified her and scolded her as though she was their own child. They also killed a fox and strung it up in the woods. Later they also snuck over and knocked down part of our fence. It was rotten but it was lower on our list of priorities than things like fixing the hole in the roof -- we were going to get to it eventually. Here is where I might be the asshole. I then snuck into <i>their</i> yard and cut down their prized birch trees. But what you have to understand is that they hate us. Later that evening I couldn't sleep and went out into the woods and saw them dancing and doing some sort of pagan ritual. My daughter and I both started getting horrible night terrors after this.
if it's not clear like i know the end makes it okay but i think for the solid first half of this book tom was in the wrong. like the whole cutting down the trees thing was INSANE. sure they already had it out for you but like there's no world where that didn't make it worse. i really liked in the author's note where he mentioned that this started as a screenplay bc as i read it i kept thinking "this would make a really good summer horror movie." that all being said i really don't get anyone's motives at all. the character i cared the most abt was gracey
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore
There is a major plot event where a child gets badly hurt and is in the hospital with the question of whether or not she will survive.ervan's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Violence, Blood, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Gaslighting
Minor: Suicide
darkndfoxes's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
2.0
I liked the concept of this book, but I think it would’ve been better as a short story. A lot of the language felt wordy just for the sake of being wordy and long sections seemed unnecessary to the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gore, Suicide, and Death
seanml's review
challenging
dark
sad
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? No
3.75
Nevill continues to be one of the few people doing folk horror, but also doing a great job at it. This one's as British as its author in that it's bleak as all hell. If you liked how Hereditary made you feel then you'll love this. 7.5/10.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Gore, Grief, Violence, Body horror, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, and Gun violence
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Suicide, and Vomit
Minor: Confinement
frogggirl2's review against another edition
dark
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? No
3.5
Seemingly every British novel is about classism - this is a horror novel about what can happen when you have the worst possible condescending, posh neighbors. This book succeeds on theme, writing and ambience. It fails on pacing and characterization.
From a practical standpoint, the character's decisions bothers me: How come they moved to this place at all since the wife clearly didn't want to? She is shown throughout to be a pragmatic woman who is not a doormat. How come they never have a conversation about everything that's going on? The husband and wife never sit down and have any conversation at all throughout the entire book. Why doesn't he propose sending their child to a grandparent's house or a friend's house or an uncle's house or literally anywhere early on? I think the answer to all this from the author's point of view would be the curse, but, that doesn't doesn't really work - to me the character actions don't seem entirely plausible. I think this is all down to the fact that more time is spent on the many denouements than on character building. After the first bit of the novel, his wife and daughter become nonexistent - they're basically just motivations for the male character - which is always a poor use of female characters.
Also, do we really need these voluminous story notes which basically just explain the plot? Either you succeeded with the story or we need these story notes. Not both.
From a practical standpoint, the character's decisions bothers me: How come they moved to this place at all since the wife clearly didn't want to? She is shown throughout to be a pragmatic woman who is not a doormat. How come they never have a conversation about everything that's going on? The husband and wife never sit down and have any conversation at all throughout the entire book. Why doesn't he propose sending their child to a grandparent's house or a friend's house or an uncle's house or literally anywhere early on? I think the answer to all this from the author's point of view would be the curse, but, that doesn't doesn't really work - to me the character actions don't seem entirely plausible. I think this is all down to the fact that more time is spent on the many denouements than on character building. After the first bit of the novel, his wife and daughter become nonexistent - they're basically just motivations for the male character - which is always a poor use of female characters.
Also, do we really need these voluminous story notes which basically just explain the plot? Either you succeeded with the story or we need these story notes. Not both.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, and Animal death
directorpurry's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Suicide, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
gracklewarp's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Suicide, Gore, and Child abuse
Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, and Vomit
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