Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Die sieben Monde des Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

18 reviews

andyourstruly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective

4.75

This was a really good book.

The best way of describing it is that genre of book where someone in the main character's life has just died, leaving behind a tangled web of mystery for the MC to unravel and resolve ... from the dead person's point of view.

The author does an amazing job painting the political landscape of Sri Lankan politics in the 70s-90s in all of its complexity and using it as a vehicle to reveal the story as opposed to allowing it to bog the story down.  The main character is jaded and unlikeable, but the slow reveal throughout the book of what leads him to be like that and the dynamics involved was really impressively handled.  I really loved the ending and the way that the author doesn't pretend to try to fix everything.  

I read this book because a friend of a friend told me that her book club had read it and that everyone but her had said that, while they liked it, they would not recommend it as a book club book, a sentiment that she had disagreed with.  Having now read it, I have to agree with my friend's friend: if these aren't the topics we discuss in a book club, then what are?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Police brutality, Suicide, Violence, Car accident, Homophobia, and War

Moderate: Torture, Child death, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

Go into this book on your guard, my friend.

asainspace's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

Clever, dark, witty, existential book about genocide, war and what it means to photograph and bear witness to inhumanity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Suicide, Homophobia, Violence, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Sexual assault

lottiegasp's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.25

This novel is a good way of learning about the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. The first 2 thirds is very slow so I was struggling to enjoy it. It's very much centred around a flawed protagonist, which I don't mind in and of itself, but I was irritated by how much he considered himself flawed and complicated, which was too much of the focus of the first chunk of the book for my liking.  But it picked up into a compelling plot that I became invested in and the story resolved in a pretty satisfactory way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, War, and Genocide

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Sexual assault

owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

“‘This is where dreams are. I come here many times. To visit him and my girls.'

‘Him? You mean God?'

She laughs. ‘No, child. My husband. The father of my babies.'

‘The professor?'

‘He supported me though he didn't agree with me. He stopped all politics after I died. He's Down There. Looking after my girls. He's a lovely father. And I visit him in dreams and tell him whenever I can.'”

I loved this! Long live second-person narration. What a wonderful, moving and dark book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Cursing, Death of parent, Classism, Confinement, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Colonisation, Car accident, Child death, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexual violence

ruby_mae_read's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Child death, Addiction, Animal death, Suicide, War, Death, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Torture, Murder, and Physical abuse

_maia3_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this book quite a bit more than I thought I would. I found the main character refreshing in how objectively bad he was as a person, the imagery lush, and the pacing top-notch. It does pack quite a lot into its pages and it may be a little disorienting at times. Certain characters and plot lines (such as Sena/Maali's involvement with Marxism) were not fully expanded upon - which sticks out like a sore thumb in such an intricate novel.

If you're going into this book wanting something politically charged, this is not the book for it. Partisan violence is treated as an unsolvable issue and the ending reinforces the fact that this book is about finding enjoyment in the little beauties in life - not about civil war, or changing the status quo. I understand that setting a book during a war that would continue for another two decades presents its own difficulties in finding an ending, but I was ultimately left a little disenchanted as I had hoped that the political plot lines would amount to more - maybe that's on me for not getting the message sooner.

  Overall I would recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Confinement, Grief, Car accident, Suicide, Murder, Homophobia, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Infidelity, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Violence, and Addiction

Minor: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Sexual content, Death of parent, Drug use, and Sexual assault

frankieclc's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, Death, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Colonisation and Police brutality

roseblossom999's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Cursing, Colonisation, Mental illness, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Blood, Sexual content, Murder, Rape, War, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Self harm, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Homophobia, Gun violence, Body horror, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Car accident

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

Set in Sri Lanka in there 1980s this tells the story of a gay photographer with a gambling habit and frequent infidelities,  who has come to his end and it's trying to navigate his afterlife. First he has to figure out how he got there, and see if he can clean up the troubles he has caused his friends and family. He can travel to any place where people are talking about him, and so he starts to find out a lot more about what was going on around him than he was aware of in his life.

I haven't seen ghosts, spirits and demons depicted in this way before. It's quite a fresh take as a way of unpacking a life lived alongside people who are responsible for huge amounts of human (and animal)  suffering and bloodshed. As a person who rationalises his position taking pictures of heinous bloodshed, in the hopes that he can ruin the reputations of warmongers and bring end to conflict, he is both naïve and reckless.

As a retrospective, 40 years gives just about enough time between now and then for a look back at the political forces at play in Sri Lanka. The foreword is specific about it being a work of fiction, but certain contextual things are irrefutable history. Unpacking some of the ideas about racial frictions in the area, of the colonization and brutalization from various powers, over hundreds of years are myriad angry and frustrated or power-hungry spirits, some of whom plan revenge, or just hate on the living. They are cutting and profane in their expressions of contempt for living people and the history they have endured.

All this is counterpointed by some young dumb 20somethings – a rich jock brat, and his cousin and flatmate, a goth girl with a cynical outlook and artsy friends.

Maali has to decide whether he will go toward the light; will he stick around on Earth as an eternal spirit, remember past lives, or forget everything and be reborn.. will he trade his strength to the demons to get special powers allowing him to affect living humans!.. and are the nasty looking apparitions trying to trick him, or are the clean, white clad "Helpers" the ones who are stringing him along?

Cool book, but a bit hard going if you aren't ok with war reporting. Interesting revelations near the end and a fairly satisfying ending. Worth a read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Racism, Body horror, Cursing, Death of parent, War, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Outing, Murder, Kidnapping, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Suicide, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Suicide attempt, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Homophobia, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Drug use, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, and Excrement

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Domestic abuse

faduma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Ableism, Body horror, Genocide, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, War, Xenophobia, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Medical trauma