Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Affinity by Sarah Waters

4 reviews

dorynickel's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this book so much! It hit all its marks: gothic but not overwrought, lusty but not erotic, intimate but not constricted, mysterious but not inscrutable.

Sometimes the characters seem not fully fleshed out, but then the two main characters' respective malleability and opaqueness are so intentional that I can't really take away points for this.

Above all, Waters' prose and storytelling are what makes this book stand out within the oft-derided "girly novel" genre. (Although it did take me a chapter or two to get used to the journal framing, with its varying syntaxes and mixed tenses.) I will admit that I didn't take this book seriously enough at first, and I was pleasantly surprised by the mastery with which Waters weaves the substance of the story and its candid prose together with the tropes inherent in its subject matter. Give yourself permission to take a sapphic Victorian Gothic mystery ghost novel seriously, and you're in for a real treat!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Mental illness, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

quechaya's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad

3.5

This was a page turner but the ending hit me like a bag of bricks. I just want to read about lesbians and not have it end in tragedy! I am a depressed lesbian so

Margaret killing herself at the end hit a little too close to home. I also didn't understand that Ruth was the molester ghost until looking up an explanation of the ending.

This book is good but it just wasn't my cup of tea in the end.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Rape, Pregnancy, Child death, Death of parent, Abortion, and Body horror

nialiversuch's review

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Confinement, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Abortion and Child death

Minor: Alcohol and Terminal illness

ehmannky's review

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.5

I think this might be my favorite of Waters' book. The final twist at the end genuinely made me gasp, and it was such a gut punch. I don't know how to review this book without spoilers (though I will say that suicide is a heavy plot point, so stay clear if that's not something you're comfortable reading), but I really enjoyed it. It's by no means happy, at any point at all in whole book, but it's gloomy and kind of spooky and it's really hitting a 2020 mood right now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

Moderate: Confinement and Mental illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Cancer, and Sexual assault