Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

191 reviews

xtie's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and War

kshertz's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

It’s actually really hard to review this book because it has such beautiful writing but such awful content. It’s uncomfortable to read at times but it’s also extremely important and well done. Sometimes I got lost in the narrative. But if you have any interest in Palestine and want to dive into a narrative that will absorb you into this situation through two stories. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

readingpolyglot's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

adoto's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Haunting and disturbing. This is what written resistance looks like

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: War

hendrixpants's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual violence

jaylinsoto's review

dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I found this book challenging to read (content wise) but really rewarding. I learned a lot & I loved how the narrator finds connection in history and strives to tell the story of a woman forgotten about and glanced over. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War

crcrane's review

dark sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Important read but a very heavy topic 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and War

lizziaha's review against another edition

4.25

Like a fly caught in a spider’s web, I got trapped without even realizing it in the minor details of this story. The mundanity of this story is the great genius of this book and yet also the thing that makes it hard to read. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Horror upon horror. 
While I was reading the first section, I wanted so badly to get past it, and onto the next section, but as soon as I did, I found myself retracing the story’s steps, wanting to go back to check the minor details, to compare them over and over again. The experience was deeply harrowing, and yet, I think I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

hammerhead69's review

adventurous dark informative reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

I was stuck between giving this book 5 stars or 1. Fantastic writing but the ending had me screaming!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

carojust's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Adania Shibli shows us the darkest side of humanity, a reality we can't ignore, in painfully beautiful and stark writing. 

The first half feels blurry, sweltering, full of smells and you feel yourself fearing, unsure what this character will do. He ends up doing the worst, and you see that you're witnessing hell. 

The second half is a complete character, POV, timeline and tone shift, told through an autistic-leaning narrator who describes, in complete detail, her world as a Palestinian in recent years. With no sense of emotion, she talks about bombings that she works and sleeps through. We follow her as she retraces the events from the first half. 

Shibli artfully weaves details and symbolism from both timelines into each other. It has a heartstopping effect, when you see that things haven't changed. The ending emphasizes this. 

Please read this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail