Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

21 reviews

kirstym25's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

Minor: Fatphobia

cooeeaus's review against another edition

Unlikeable characters, miserable story, unrealistic plot, cooking description detracted the story and was just boring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Bullying

kaiaconstantinides's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

2.5

I loved how the food was affected and affected others based on Tita's emotions or their relationship with Tita (e.g., Mama Elena finding food prepared with Tita's care bitter). In general, I appreciated the novelty (novelty for me at least, I'm not sure if other books out there do this as well) of having each chapter centered around a recipe that is interwoven with the story. I mostly enjoyed the first half of the book. 

I was confused by the decision to make each chapter a month since years sometimes separate chapters and the months don't seem to correspond to the chapter, unless perhaps each recipe corresponds to a month and I just missed that? I really wish there was better character development: the characters felt almost cartoonishly two-dimensional to me, and any development seemed to happen like the switch of a lightbulb.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Rape

anninerie's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Infertility, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Child abuse

mags_'s review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Child death, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Animal death

izzytheniffler's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death of parent and Fatphobia

Minor: Rape and Child death

dhritigupta's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad 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

4.5

first of all tita is such a cancer queen <3 a wild and fun ride!! i loved the format and the way food was woven into the story. didn’t love the ending, tita always deserved better than pedro 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Vomit

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, and Child abuse

lrosero2020's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Fatphobia

yellow_star's review against another edition

sad 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

2.0

I know this is a classic, but I hated it. The whole basis was all these miserable awful people made rules to guarantee their children would also be miserable awful people. 

I hate the mother, Rausita, Pedro, and Tita. The only characters who deserved a good happy ending were the babies who became a happy couple and ended the cycle of suffering and abusing the kids, and John who was a good man and much better than the highschool boyfriend who dumped his lover when it was slightly inconvenient to date her. Tita starts out good, but because of her bitterness she starts doing bad things too, and she betrays John repeatedly even though he's the only man who actually treated her well.

I guess I should be happy that this has a happy-ish ending considering it's a soap opera, but I'm not happy with it.

The recipes are good and worth saving though.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse and Death

karol99's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

Hard for me to complete it because I read it in Spanish, but once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed it. It always surprised me and had me engaged in the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Child death, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Grief, and Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Violence, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Abandonment

Minor: Physical abuse