Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

469 reviews

readwithkye's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring relaxing sad 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

This has made my list of books I will always recommend, knocking many others off that list that could never compare to this level of storytelling and writing. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is great. It’s not like Ready Player One. It’s kind of like The Social Network but with mildly more sympathetic characters at its core. It’s ultimately about the work/life balance of three friends that start a video game company together told through the eyes of 2 out of the 3 of them. It also might be peak late Gen-X/Early Millennial nostalgia in terms of the video games referenced and it essentially inserts itself into how things actually happened in reality. Please note the sexism, misogyny and racist tendencies the characters Sam, Marx and their family members came across is realistically depicted. There’s also an active shooter situation depicted in the novel so be aware if it triggers you. One character also engages in an inappropriate relationship with a person with authority over them and mind if it triggers you. One character has a mobility disability and there’s vivid depictions of his struggles with medical care and health. There is suicide and car accidents depicted as well.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Triggers are either actively in there or suggested somewhere throughout the book. I honestly might have missed some but I really enjoyed this book and its depiction of the years shown and how Zevin’s characters lived through those times.

soule_soph's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Murder

Minor: Cancer

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Drug use, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Abortion, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

avalete's review against another edition

sad medium-paced

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

0.25

This book was genuinely awful. The writing is horrid, the characters are insufferable, and I don’t even think there’s a plot? There’s supposed to be a conflict between the main two characters, but they really don’t seem like they like each other. At all. Their problems don’t feel resolved.

I also don’t agree with the author’s views and wasn’t aware of them until I finished the book. I regret reading this book for so many reasons. I wish I could give it an even lower rating.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

dmchesher's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

sabrinaboyk's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual violence

Minor: Cancer and Homophobia

squidface's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

I raced through this book, which is a testament to Kevin's ability to pace well, write readable characters, and overall keep me that engaged. I nearly gave this a 5/5 but the book has a few flaws that downgraded it for me.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adored this book, flaws and all (which is definitely one of the themes of the book - loving someone wholly despite their flaws and your flaws). I loved the literary references, the use of Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, and thought it was interesting that those things fell away as the characters got older - but yet it was sort of a turning plot point in the later third of the book to bring Macbeth back in so the characters could emotionally connect again (sorry if this doesn't make much sense, I'm trying to keep the review as spoiler free as possible).
I felt, as others have pointed out, that Zevin was using some kind of word of the day thing and tried to shoehorn in as many random words as possible. Tuberose was overused as an adjective. She misused the word tautology (who proofed this?). 
I disagree with whoever said she clearly doesn't understand music - those observations about Miles Davis et al in the book are made from a character point of view and definitely aren't the views of the author.
Although I did at times find the characters to be thinly veiled versions of parts of Zevin, for the most part they're adorkable.
Despite the flaws, I think Zevin is an amazing and accomplished writer. And this book is definitely worth a read. 
For me it actually could have gone into more elaboration about the games world itself and the business side of it, but I suppose in the end the book focused on relationships between people, and that's what mattered more, because it played to it's strengths.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

frameturtle's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.25

This book is hard for me to rate because while the writing is objectively high quality, there were a lot of small grievances that added up to me not really enjoying it for a large portion of the readtime. 
Some examples:

• the author hits you over the head with the whole 'platonic, not romantic' thing. I counted roughly 10 times where the book explicitly or near-explicitly spells out this particular theme. Some of these are justifiably in context, some less so. Like, I got it the first time.
• a large portion of the conflict stems from miscommunication. This isn't inherently wrong or anything but I personally have a strong distaste for it.
• There are moments where I get the sense that the author is interjecting with her personal opinion. There is a difference in how Sadie's opinions on
  marriage
  and her opinions on
  the younger generation and cultural appropriation
  are portrayed. 
• In the beginning of the book, Sadie gets into an abusive relationship with her professor. Throughout, the book seems to 'forgive' him.
  She attends his wedding where he marrys another student. Near the end, she gets brunch with him and refers to him as an old friend.
  I find this choice to be icky to say the least.

This is not to say there wasn't anything I liked about the book. I enjoyed

the sequence at the end in the pioneer game.

I also liked the quote

during Marx's death sequence about how the fact that everything is dying is existentially terrifying,

along with some others.

In conclusion: you may really like this book if you aren't me. Unfortunately I am me and can only give 3.25 stars.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence

ematton's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Sexual violence and Suicide

Minor: Abortion