Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

43 reviews

mshiley's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Stalking

hoagie's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Misogyny, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Grief, Islamophobia, Murder, and Sexual content

paigereitz's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious sad 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

I really enjoyed this book. It was such an interesting exploration of culture and religion and multi-generational families navigating those challenges. From my vantage point, it tackled culture and varying levels of conservatism within Sikhism remarkably well, allowing the women to be people - not caricatures of their culture. And listening to the audiobook was lovely. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Death, and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

xoxo_biz's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is delightful with a twist. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

scmiller's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Body shaming, Murder, Sexism, Bullying, Hate crime, Classism, Misogyny, and Child death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Lesbophobia, Religious bigotry, Rape, Addiction, Alcohol, Biphobia, and Homophobia

inlaraland's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-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

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started listening to the “Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows”, but I can happily say I was pleasantly surprise. This funny, lighthearted and emotional novel highlights the strength of community and friendship, while also emphasizing the challenges of balancing desire and duty. The story follows our main protagonist Nikki, who is the daughter of immigrant parents and raised in London. She spent most of her life struggling to balance the cultural, traditional expectations of her eastern upbringing with her deep desire to live a modern, independent life.

When her father’s death leaves her family in a financial bind, Nikki decides to make extra cash outside of her job working at a pub to teach creative writing classes at a local Punjabi community center. However, due to miscommunication, Nikki didn’t know that the women attending her class only joined under the pretense that they were going to learn how to read and write basic english. Not willing to back down from a challenge, Nikki decides to continue with her lessons only to soon learn that the stories these reserved widows were sharing were far wilder than she could ever expect.

An unlikely bond forms between Nikki and her students, but they have to keep the classes a secret from the “Brotherhood”, a group of conservative men who have appointed themselves as the moral police of the community. But the deeper Nikki gets involved with the people around her , the more she starts learning about the dark secrets that the community themselves have been hiding - including the unsolved murder of a young woman.

The narration of the audiobook was fantastic, and at one point I was so hooked that I couldn’t stop listening because I was on the edge of my seat. The writing is tender and thoughtful, and I really enjoyed the heart-warming development between Nikki and her students, and each of the characters have their own unique voices and stories to share. I felt like I lost myself into the drama of this world and community, and it’s such a bittersweet moment to part away once it was all over. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a fun and captivating contemporary fiction story!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Misogyny

baileyes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Infidelity, Grief, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Emotional abuse

sarabook's review against another edition

informative reflective sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Sexism

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

Minor: Terminal illness, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

sakisreads's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-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

I was so pleasantly surprised that this was by Balli Kaur Jaswal, because I recently read ‘Now You See Us’ and loved it ✨

This story was SUBLIME. Lighthearted moments with touching parts in between, this is definitely worth a read ❤️ 

I’ll discuss some of my favourite parts but there’ll be some spoilers so I’ve put them in my spoiler tags ✨

I was so delighted that Nikki had her happy endings; getting justice for Maya (or starting to), finding love with Jason, making friends with Kulwinder etc. I was so invested in her and her widow friends, I kept rooting for them 🥳

Another one! The murder by Jaggi and the assault by him and Tarampal was very upsetting, but I was so happy when it brought the widows back in again 🥰 Arvinder and Sheena were two particular favourites; badassery and femininity are not mutually exclusive 🤷🏻‍♀️

Asian mums express their love in the same ways and so this excerpt got me 🥹 

‘Grace's gesture stirred something in Nikki. She couldit believe how much she missed Mum all of a sudden - Mum who had pushed money into her hand the same insistent way the first time she returned home for dinner after moving out.’

It’s 4.5 out of 5 stars for me ✨ Big fan! Thank you 😊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Rape, and Misogyny

manisitdas's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.25

A beautiful story about South Asian diaspora societies in a foreign and often unkind land, where shame and honor often triumph over choice and plague women's lives. But this is also a story of women finding themselves, discovering a community, being able to openly discuss their desires, and, in the process, learning to fight for their rights and support one another. So wonderfully portrayed, while at the same time quite fair and balanced about the diaspora experiences! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Violence