Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

11 reviews

m_delaney's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide and Child abuse

tita_loves_literature's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Child death and Violence

babudarabu's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Blood, Car accident, Alcohol, and Child abuse

thesupermassive's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“Journeys end in lovers meeting; I have spent an all but sleepless night, I have told lies and made a fool of myself and the very air tastes like wine. I have been frightened half out of my foolish wits, but I have somehow earned this joy; I have been waiting for it for so long.” (136)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Death of parent

savvy999's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

Devastating inexplicable sadness that comes with a lost youth and the frustrating isolation of grasping at love wherever it appears. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse

filipa_maia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

So... I was expecting a little bit more from this book. Being my favorite genre and so acclaimed (this book was the inspiration for the Netflix series) I was expecting pure, dark horror.

Don't get me wrong, the book is good: a haunted house and a bunch of people living in it is the perfect plot to a great book. We get all the classics: knocks on the doors, footsteps when nobody is around, people acting in a very weird way. But that was not enough. The dialogs are long, superficial and, sometimes, very confusing - almost as if it was written to be a script and not a actual book. The characters are annoying and you never, truly, understand if that's how they really are or if that's part of the house's influence. Maybe that's the intention, after all. But we will never find out.

For me, there is a lot of talking and not enough action. I hear very nice thing about the series so I'm going to give it a try. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Alcohol

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

i wouldn't say i found it scary or tense at all, just a lil spooky at times. it started off strong but kind of fell into a lull for the last third until the very end. i wanted to see

the house's control over Eleanor

play out longer; it was definitely a slow burn but there wasn't much payoff.
also, no, this book doesn't have any queer undertones. they are so blatant they're fucking overtones.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Car accident, and Suicide

Minor: Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Confinement, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Death

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Child abuse and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

impeachnixon's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Car accident, Domestic abuse, and Blood

ozzy_999's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A wonderful read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Child abuse

A few discussions of child abuse far removed from our cast of characters.

The main character you hear narrate and grow to love goes crazy and kills herself but it’s all very fast.