Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Sluit alle deuren by Riley Sager, Roelof Posthuma

5 reviews

thejenstamps's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

WOW Riley Sager. Full disclosure - I'm on a mission to read all of Sager's books and absolutely love all of them - in a sick, weird, twisted way. 

But this one? Oh my goodness! 

Unlike his other books, I figured out the "who" and part the "how" but good gracious, I never suspected the "why" and the details of the "how." How intricate and far back and involved everything and everyone was.  Mind. Blown. 

This dark and twisted book will take you on a wild ride that you'll simultaneously want to stop and also not stop. 

If you like horror thrillers (because this book is more horror than not), I recommend it 100% 

I kind of feel like this should be a mini series on Netflix. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Classism

Moderate: Murder, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Kidnapping

jessspeake's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, Classism, Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Suicide, Violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Cursing, and Sexual content

daringreader13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Body horror, Classism, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

bookishgoob's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? N/A

3.5

this was very entertaining. i have some problems with the way sager writes and the pacing of his stories but he has good stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.5

Y'all, this one was a ride.

I put my physical TBR in a randomizer and let it choose for me, and it chose spooky apparently - and in terms of spookiness, this book delivers on all fronts. I loved the gothic apartment building setting. To me, it felt extremely vivid and claustrophobic. The gargoyles, the colors, the faces in the wallpaper, I felt like I could see it all. I loved that every single person in the book was suspicious as hell. There wasn't just one person I was side eye-ing - I was side eye-ing them all, even the MC's parents who were dead when the book began. I would compare this to American Horror Story: Hotel, but less unhinged because the writing is better. As a whole, the story was compelling and kept me guessing what direction it was going in.

There are parts, however, that had me scratching my head or made me uncomfortable - and not in the way that you hope to be uncomfortable when reading a thriller. There was some casual homophobia within the inner monologue of the main character that really took me aback, it didn't serve the story at all and it was the kind of casual homophobia that queer people like myself pick up on very easily. Additionally, there is some queer "rep" in the history of the Bartholomew, but it is all negative rep that does not serve the story. Speaking of the MC, Jules, she was incredibly annoying, and not to be mean, but she was dumb as rocks. I didn't care about her breakup, I barely cared about her life, I wanted to know more about the Bartholomew building and its history. This next critique is petty, but I'm wondering if Sager really needed to use the word "meager" as many times as he did while writing this book. It got to a point where I had to roll my eyes every time I saw it. Please open a thesaurus, for the love of God.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia