Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

8 reviews

david_slack110507's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Child abuse, Classism, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Racism, Abandonment, Gaslighting, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Ableism, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Incest, Medical content, Vomit, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Cultural appropriation

aleskahhh's review

dark emotional 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

5.0

A revolutionary re-imagined prequel to Jane Eyre. 
I'll be honest, the start frightened me, I hated the middle... but the ending was the most satisfyingly thing I have ever read. I read this as an introduction to post-colonial lit but it was intense. It introduces you to a very troubled protagonist, makes you watch her suffer at the hands of a horrible husband and yet somehow she is still able to hold onto who she is. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Gaslighting

leanneymu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Very interesting re-imagining of Jane Eyre from the first Mrs Rochester's perspective, and one that holds up on its own too. Be warned, there are some period-relevant slurs in the novel, which, while shocking to modern sensibilities, feel appropriate to the way these characters would talk to one another.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Violence, and Sexual content

minariffo's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

loxeletters's review against another edition

reflective

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Confinement, Rape, Ableism, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death

badmom's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexual content

caribbeangirlreading's review

challenging emotional mysterious 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

3.75

 

You have most probably read the coming-of-age story about the second Mrs. Rochester, Jane Eyre.  But have you ever stopped to think about the first Mrs. Rochester? Who was she? What is her story? And, more importantly, was she really mad? In the original 19th century classic, Bertha Mason, the mad woman in the attic, was just a plot device. In Wide Sargasso Sea, however, Jean Rhys gives her life in this short but powerful novella that acts as a prequel, and post-colonial response, to Jane Eyre. 

 

Bertha Mason (nee Antoinette Cosway) was born in Jamaica to a British father and a Creole mother of French descent. The novel opens with Antoinette describing her childhood, and the social and political reality of Jamaica at the time – the racial violence following emancipation, the disgust bordering on hatred that the British-born society had toward whites born in the Caribbean, the trauma she endured as a child following her father’s death. We then meet the young man to whom Antoinette is married off. (We assume he is Mr. Rochester, but he is never named.) We see the demise of an arranged marriage that barely took flight, and the decline of Antoinette’s mental health. And in between, we are treated to descriptions of the lush tropical setting by an author, who unlike Mr. Rochester, loved the Caribbean. 

 

For a book that is only 177 pages long, WSS packs quite a punch. It tackles, among other themes, post-colonialism and British Victorian attitudes towards women and mental illness. As soon as I finished WSS, I ran to re-read the passages in Jane Eyre in which Jane and Mr. Rochester describe Bertha Mason and I will never again look at Jane Eyre as a strictly coming-of-age Victorian feminist novel. There is so much I didn’t see that I now do, which is exactly what Jean Rhys wanted us to do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide

Minor: Colonisation, Infidelity, and Sexual content

manarnia's review

challenging mysterious medium-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

This book was a very confusing and challenging read, but I appreciated the perspectives that it offered. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Slavery

Minor: Blood and Death of parent