Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia

4 reviews

frogggirl2's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

What a fast, unique, thrilling read!   In terms of a horror/school overlap, this is a lot like a two-part episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (high praise).  This is ugly and beautiful, haunting and relateable.   A propulsive read, consistently fascinating, that I could not put down and will not soon forget. 
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sammba's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

It is a well written book that's content will stay in my mind for a long time.  I caught on to the mystery about 1/3 of the way through and continued reading hoping that I was wrong. The whole story is heartbreaking.

I would NOT recommend his book for teens or label it as YA (see content/trigger warnings). It is NOT for the faint of heart. 
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sarah984's review against another edition

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

3.0

This was a very dark and strange little novel and I'm still not really sure how I felt about it. The writing is so atmospheric and some of the imagery will probably stick with me forever, but a lot of it didn't really feel like it meant anything. Considering the heavy nature of the real life topic involved I wish the book had had more to say than like "bad things are bad".
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ninjamuse's review

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It’s been a long time since a horror novel scared the pants off me. And YA horror, when I’m getting less and less hooked by teen fiction as the years go on? That is a sign of a great book, right there.

Katzenjammer is surreal and claustrophobic and tense, to the point where I wanted to keep reading but couldn’t, because tension overload and fear of nightmares and all that. The stakes and the horror keep ratcheting up and every time I thought I had a handle on the the world of School and how horrific everything was going to get, I was not prepared. Like, to the last page I was unprepared. “Body horror” + “trapped in high school” + “she's slowly remembering everything” doesn’t even scratch the surface. This is so real and angry and beautiful and creepy and pointed and terrifying and I’m going to be thinking about this book for a while as I unpick all the layers. I want to scream from the horror and from how good it was, all at the same time.
Damn, but Zappia knows how to write.

Please, please check content warnings on this one, everyone, please. This was A LOT, and I haven’t even been in school recently.

(Releases June 28. Thanks for the publisher and my work for providing me an advanced copy.)
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