Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

15 reviews

lunastellab's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Child death, Suicide, and Animal death

hauntedantiqueshop's review

dark mysterious slow-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? Yes

1.0

an absurd amount of nipple in this book and I assure you, it isn’t in a fun sexy way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Grief, Death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Child death, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Suicide, Medical trauma, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Incest, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Alcohol

There isn’t a tag for the f slur but it is used a handful of times.

sugarbucky's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

INCREDIBLY CHILLING and DAMN ORIGINAL!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual violence, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, and Suicide

Moderate: Islamophobia, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia

jilly_reads's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I DEVOURED this book. I rarely get this enthusiastic about new horror and this was just *chef’s kiss* perfection. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Grief

Moderate: Self harm, Child death, Suicide, Rape, Medical content, Violence, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Death, Sexual violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Abortion

aparker89's review

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a solid book! A fascinating story full of terror, love, heartbreak and most importantly- the evil of mankind! 
Good f&cking book! Definitely not for the faint of heart but damn- my heart hurts after reading this! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Classism, Genocide, Medical trauma, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Torture, Confinement, Gore, Police brutality, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Homophobia, and Islamophobia

_sappho_wannabe's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

the most disturbing book i’ve ever and might ever read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Self harm, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Homophobia

turtleofhades's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.75

This book. This book is gonna leave me with nightmares for the next little while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Animal death, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Child death, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Islamophobia, Torture, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Mental illness, Classism, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Sexism

efurtak49's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Very interesting plot line. Not as scary as the review claim, but a new-ish idea of modern day horror of old world spirits. Worth my time to read it but not recommended for everyone 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Blood, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Blood

tbd24's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

First things first, if you haven’t read this book yet, check the trigger warnings bc hot damn. Literally everything is graphic.

I have a difficult time rating this because i feel like, technically, in some ways, it was a pretty good book. The writing was lush and evocative, and sense of horror well maintained and accentuated with moments of humor or banality or otherwise. However, I feel like the book had a lot of problems with realistic character choices. Tyler and Jaden are the only two people who feel like fully realized characters who have motive and personality and make wise and unwise choices. Every other named character makes choices that are convenient to the plot and every unnamed background character (the citizens of black springs, who seem to number in the thousands??) are just a faceless mass of mob mentality. I feel like the author spent little time convincing me that thousands of people would make the irrational choices they did, and more time moralizing that humanity is stupid and hopeless and violent. I am already biased against this opinion so i guess take this with a grain of salt. The last 25% of the book is just hitting you over the head with “people are stupid and violent and humanity sucks”, down to steve’s final decision to

let his wife and son die in a fire for literally no reason, after already realizing that Catherine had no power over the situation

. I understand this is a horror novel but it’s just truly boring to me when authors act like the end is fated and don’t even bother to make the characters choices make sense.

Beyond this, the main problem I had throughout the whole book was the authors blatant sexism. The only woman in this book with anything like power or agency was the literal witch, who’s literally wrapped in chains with her mouth and eyes sewn shut. Every description of a woman fell neatly into category of “ugly old hag”, “mom”, or “sexual object with no personality”.  Not even any bitches! Sometimes women would cross contaminate, and be an ugly old hag who was at least worth it for the tits, or a mom who still put out every night for her husband. Even in moments when it made absolutely no sense, the author found a way to get a woman naked (ie;

the head council guy groping Griselda bizarrely, Jocelyn having a hallucination of being fucked by a boar, or the fact that she was inexplicably naked at the end???? literally why was she naked???

). Obviously the first red flags were that none of Tyler’s friends were girls, and Matt apparently had no friends, and all of the adult women were hysterical and/or completely reliant on their husbands, but I was lulled into a sense of hope by  Catherine being possibly powerful and maybe secretly the moral was that people discredit women but noooo the author made sure to remind you that catherine was a woman with tits too. Like, it was so jarring every time it happens bc I’d be immersed in a tense scene and then completely taken out because the author just HAD to mention boobies RIGHT NOW ( I literally laughed out loud at

the jocelyn/boar scene, i was so excited to have a moment of her pov and her taking action but nope fucked by a boar and as soon as she finds a man she becomes completely feeble again

). I just quite literally felt like the author never imagined anyone but a white cis man reading his book. I don’t even want to talk about Griselda. 

Anyway yeah I think that’s it. Some very stunning moments of evocative writing. Some equally stunning moments of sexism, nihilism, and general senseless violence. Not really my thing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Animal cruelty, Child death, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Gore, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Islamophobia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Excrement, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Violence

simple_homo_slaypien's review

dark mysterious tense 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

This book was incredibly interesting because it was unlike other books I’ve read. A lot of its stars that I’ve given it are based on the ingenuity and uniqueness of the plot. I think messages could’ve been clearer, but overall really interesting and a fun, morally, ambiguous book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment

they mentioned strange violence against women in spaces that didn’t actually need that kind of specific graphic detail. There is a lot of focus on nipples and pinching nipples and cutting boobs for no real reason? Thankfully, this was only a very small element of the plot, but came across more as just a man writing a book.