Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini

61 reviews

alexandra_kat's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Incest, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

ladyjtm's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

I agree with the review that this is an “emotionally immersive novel” and impossible to put down. Much of this is challenging because of the brutal abuse so this book is not for everyone. This author does not write abuse with side eye. It is vivid and up close. I found myself reading the entire book in one day because I couldn’t put it down until I knew Alethea was safe. Incredible storytelling of intersectionality and trauma. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Incest, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Racism, Rape, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Physical abuse

rachel_bunting93's review

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Hate crime, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Violence, Racism, Murder, Grief, and Death of parent

anmolu's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

Deeply heart wrenching and emotional. I fell in love with Alethea. I shudder that she would've never left Leo and it took him die to for her freedom. The last sentence of the the book is satisfactory and hoepful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

dramagirl2003's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.25

it was sad *cue cartoon sad face*, but just like the places i've cried in public, which I read earlier this year, it was enlightening to read some of the reasons why people stay in abusive relationships. I'm rooting for alethea to grow in her non-toxic friendships and become her own woman

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Incest

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Racism, and Vomit

I count sexual content as consentual sex

nokvi's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Amazing book written completely in trini dialect. The Bread the Devil Knead takes us into an deep dive into Trinidadian life as we go thru the motions with Alethea as she deals with the demons of her past and present. Abuse from her childhood has followed her into adulthood till that is all she knows. And the lightheart manner via which these heavy topics are delivered is an icing on the cake as it is reflective of how someone in the situation may view the matter.

No notes 10/10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Infidelity, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Incest, and Adult/minor relationship

gobby_gilbert's review

challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Abortion, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Death, and Classism

samants's review

dark emotional 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

4.75

Phenomenal. The dialect is lyrical, and I enjoyed the challenge of reading something not written for me. The book is a portrait of abuse and therefore heavy and dark, but also stunning, and I adored the main character. The ending is wide open, and I love it.

Do mind the content warnings -- they are real and graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexual harassment

paochavezgt's review

dark emotional sad fast-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

3.25

Be careful if you choose to read this book. It can be very triggering. It is heart wrenching. 

This was an excruciating read. I feel physically and emotionally ill. By all means I understand how powerful her writing and storytelling is. There are certain topics and storylines I'm simply not able to digest properly. The dread that i feel for Ali is uncanny, I hope she gets to surround herself with kind women, from this point forward. Although, I do question wether a victim of abuse would still enjoy certain things from their abuser, I believe reading this experience as hard as it is, gives a voice to survivors. Not a feminist voice, if I might say.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Incest, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Violence, and Xenophobia

tombomp's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Big trigger warnings for domestic violence, rape, child abuse, an *explicit* child sexual abuse scene, Spoilerincest. All of which are intense and there are constant scenes throughout the book.

I think it's hard to put my thoughts together about this. It's a cavalcade of trauma and abuse and then it just ends so... neatly? Like, not that the scars are resolved obviously. But it feels weird - although even saying that feels wrong, as if I'm suggesting that actually the trauma should have carried on, which is also not what I meant.

I think part of it is that the neat ending owes very little to the actions of the main character in the "present day" - there's connections formed in childhood that only just come back around all at once and we only see bits and pieces of how they happened and Spoilera loose friendship where the other person seemingly took it upon herself to get the MC's abusive violent boyfriend shot in a way that framed him as the shooter? it's a little vague at the end exactly what happened and how much knowledge people had but it's heavily implied imo. That's not bad exactly - everyone needs support and it's good to show stuff happening as a group effort, obviously. It more just adds to the sense that things wrapped up due purely to coincidence than anything else. Which... again I guess that's not that inaccurate to real life. So again I can't exactly mark it down for that. 

I think the explicit child sexual abuse scene really threw me for a loop and eclipsed everything else about the book. Not suggesting it's wrong to portray it, just it was so intense (even though I had to skim it) that I couldn't really get settled about how I feel about the book due to feeling so upset and lost reading that. 

I will say as an obvious unalloyed good thing: the Trinidadian Creole writing style is really good and I loved reading it. It's an incredibly readable book that's quite compelling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Infertility, Incest, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Rape