Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Guest in the House by E.M. Carroll

15 reviews

foxclcves's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Dysphoria, Sexual content, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Self harm, Violence, Alcohol, and Gaslighting

moonmisandrist's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

As always Carroll's art is so beautiful and creepy. I love knights and dragons so of course I loved that the protagonist dreams of themself as a beautiful knight, slaying dragons and saving the princess (and the art in these dream sequences are breathtaking).  Unfortunately, the ending felt a bit too quick - though I can see the narrative purpose of it, I would have liked more time in the story so the ending had felt more impactful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and Body horror

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

catspajamas15's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

Emily Carroll can do no wrong. Her art is unparalleled and hauntingly beautiful. Her story may not make sense to some, but you can still get lost in the illustrations and come to your own conclusions. I will always support this author. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Emotional abuse, Murder, Self harm, Grief, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Death, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, and Death of parent

violerwolf's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

Gorgeous art style, gorgeous writing, absolutely do not understand the ending and I don’t think I ever will. And I think I have to be okay with that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Suicide, Sexual content, Murder, Gaslighting, and Death

lav's review

dark mysterious reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Cancer, Pregnancy, and Suicide

jenmtnbike's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Grief

alisonannk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Misogyny

tussenlettersin's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

I feel like Emily Carroll is well versed in writing these kinds of endings which are infuriatingly confusing. Infuriatingly, because they fit the feeling of estrangement, yearning and sad fear so damn well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Grief, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Death, and Mental illness

theabee's review

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

jesshindes's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Ok! I'm catching up on my reviews so it's been a couple of weeks since I read this one but I really enjoyed it. I think graphic novels are the perfect way to tell horror stories because it's basically like you can create your own horror film, story and visuals and everything, all by yourself without the enormous army of people necessary on an actual movie. Anyway, Emily Carroll does this in 'A Guest in the House' to great effect. Abby (mousy, self-effacing) is recently married to a (fairly inscrutable, luxuriantly moustached) new guy, recently moved to a new lakeside house with him and his also fairly inscrutable child, still a little destablised by the loss of her mother, basically in a weird place already and then starts seeing things. In some resects this story leans into a lot of classic tropes (to the extent of having most of the story in black and white but then these dreams/visions/hallucinations/whatever they are in colour) but I thought there were other ways that it was quite fresh and unexpected; the nature of Abby's relationship with the apparition, for example, felt original and compelling to me. The balance of creepiness/suspense was just right (the husband just feels *off* but you're not quite sure exactly how for a long time) and Carroll does really effective things with the format (she makes great use of the page layout so that you're often turning the page in suspense to see... something). And I thought the ending was great, although it's also maddeningly ambiguous so if anybody wants to discuss it Let Me Know!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Suicide, Body horror, and Domestic abuse