Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Ice by Anna Kavan

6 reviews

bmc1230's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A

4.5

Just finished reading Ice by Anna Kavan and it's a tricky book to put a finger on. A hallucinatory slog through an evolving nightmarescape set in the ever-expanding eco-catastrophe and war of a post-apocalypse, Kavan's work is terrifying in it's ability to capture the entanglement of violence and desire, victimizer and victim. From the outset, it's ridiculous even to try and identify what might be "real" and what might be a hallucination or nightmare. Despite it's jetsetting scramble to new non-descript locations where the narrator will often run into the same problems of a border patrol, a mirror image, imprisonment, murder and "the girl" in some room before she is whisked away by an alter ego, Ice is an intensely claustrophobic read. The narrator's sexually charged and violent pursuit of "the girl" is uncomfortable and unsettling and yet you can't blink before she reappears before him, at once real and not. *Ice* is a haunting and unsettling read with many of the overtones of victimhood, addiction, eco-catastrophe, authoritarianism, etc. always moving with that foreboding pace like the encroaching glacier's which lend the novel it's title. It's a unique read I'd recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

jakobvongunten's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking and Misogyny

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Ableism

johnclough's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

3.5

A hallucinogenic blizzard of a novel replete with wonderful turns of phrase. Easier to get into when you let go of any hope of coherent narrative. Kavan called Ice a fable and it is certainly packed with allegory. Plenty of this is obvious Cold War reference but there remains much that feels more esoteric. Having a psychotic, psychopathic narrator is challenging at times, and I'm not sure I found much satisfaction in the ending, but certainly a vivid and unique read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Domestic abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Alcohol and Mass/school shootings

sarahtranslates's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

raoulalexander's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Confinement, War, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

leduyhxxng's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

my feelings of this novel are irrelevant for the time being. i need to read a bit more and deeper into literature of this kind, and then give it a reread before im confident ive arrived at something even remotely thoughtful. so far, this book has wrecked my narrow definition of literature and reality and my life goals and probably more that, as a noob, id failed to recognise. i thought im a plot hoe (lol see what i did there), but this plotless showpiece has truly finished me (to think that i finished it would be a wild accusation, who even am i?!). so theres that.

a few notes for further venture into this reality-bending literature genre: slipstream (non-genre)

Science fiction writers whose work qualified as slipstream include J. G. Ballard, John Sladek, Thomas M. Disch, some of Philip K. Dick. Other writers, who were outside the science fiction genre but whose work could conceivably fit into the wider definition allowed by slipstream include Angela Carter, Paul Auster, Haruki Murakami, Jorge Luis Borges, and William S. Burroughs. Another notable inclusion was, of course, Anna Kavan.

In literature, since slipstream stands above genres of fiction, many examples of magical realism can certainly be recognised as slipstream, one notable mention being Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Some television drama would qualify: The Singing Detective by Dennis Potter, and a BBC series called Life on Mars. In cinema, recent slipstream films include Christopher Nolan's Memento, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Impacto and Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich.

— Compiled from Christopher Priest's introduction to Anna Kavan's novel Ice

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Confinement, Bullying, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: War, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

Minor: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, and Police brutality