Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

99 reviews

tzanet08's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Addiction, and Vomit

Moderate: Sexual content, Gore, Rape, Death of parent, Body horror, Animal death, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Murder, Abandonment, Terminal illness, and Sexual violence

mooonyaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Death, Suicide, Grief, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Mental illness, Murder, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Addiction

Minor: Car accident, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Forced institutionalization

corsanglais's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Drug use, Sexual content, Mental illness, Confinement, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, War, and Rape

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Blood, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Vomit, Medical content, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, and Suicide attempt

mattyb2851's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

If you are a fan of existential, cosmic horror, stories about love (and can it prevail?), textbooks, unreliable narration, and exploring the strengths of printed media, the do I have a book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Addiction, Suicide, and Chronic illness

nerdkitten's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Drug use, Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Addiction, Excrement, Sexual assault, Body horror, Child death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Misogyny, Ableism, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Abortion, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Incest, Racism, Suicide attempt, War, and Vomit

ivana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious

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

4.25

The reading experience of this was like nothing I've ever read and probably will ever read again. I loved how it mirrored what was happening in the story. I actually enjoyed Johnny's footnotes and the rambling nonsensical tone a lot more than most seem to have and I had a harder time with the pretentious fake analytical tangents from The Navidson Record

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Drug use, Addiction, Child death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Colonisation, Ableism, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cancer, Rape, and Infidelity

singrequiem's review

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.5

I normally DEVOUR books. Especially dark, challenging, flawed, experimental books. This book, no joke, took me literal YEARS to finish, primarily just because of how much Jonny Truant sucks. He sucks hard. I went on forums to ask people to convince me not to just skip all of his notes and story. I’m glad I’m finally through it. I can appreciate the mastery that Danielewski has over the intricacies of his manuscript, the attention to detail, the world building, the control of tone (especially when switching between academic and informal writing styles) but this book was just a slog. I could rant for paragraphs, but I will try and boil it down to: it’s really not that creepy, and the most interesting parts are buried in jargon and presented dryly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Confinement, Mental illness, Drug use, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Addiction

Moderate: Sexual violence and Rape

Minor: Gun violence and Vomit

Existential dread and unanswered questions

blueshirt's review

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Interesting premise and structure, but I found most of the characters unlikable and kind of boring. 

- Johnny Truant's sections are so self-indulgent/-congratulatory. I have no patience for some misogynistic twerp's #sodeep musings.

- I'm never actually convinced that Navidson is a good guy. He just makes one stupid, selfish choice after another. I'm glad Karen cheated on him and I think she should do it again.

- Karen's character is defined solely by her beauty (or lack thereof, at the end) and how much she Needs A Man. Gross.

- The children are not real characters, they are given no depth or development. 

- Reston has no purpose beyond talking about how cool Navidson is.

- Tom is great, no notes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Child abuse, Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicide, Drug abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Pedophilia

yaslanna's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction and Suicide

Minor: Infidelity and Panic attacks/disorders