Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini

35 reviews

yawningtiger's review

dark sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Infertility, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Incest, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Sexual violence

essay23's review

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Rape, Incest, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

naima0615's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Sexual assault

rebekah_florence's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

“And I not dead. I still here. And people love me.”  The Bread the Devil Knead’s Aletheia is a character that, throughout reading the novel, reminded me of The Color Purple’s Celie.  I like that the Allen-Agostini splits of especially heavy chapters of text by interspersing chapters of flashbacks from Alethea’s childhood.  I could see that she’s truly been fighting and burdened her whole life.  When Aletheia has moments of happiness, I wished that those could continue forever.  I felt, however, that I didn’t get to know Alethea that well.  Perhaps that was intentional, as we know that it’s difficult for her to have her own life, but I longed to feel more connected to the character.  This was not only my first Carribean author, but also my first book written in Trinidadian Creole.  I’m inspired to read more books in dialect, and further, learn more about various Caribbean cultures.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Blood, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism

mcc's review

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

This book needs a lot of content warnings, because, you name it, it's in it. Beautifully written from a prose point of view, but overly simplistic from a plot point of view. The main character escapes her cycle of abuse because 2 people from her past wind up popping out of nowhere within 24 hours of each other and suddenly give her a magical support network, then instead of helping her leave her abuser, he is conveniently

killed

and she is left free. So I didnt like how there was no empowerment of the main character and she just got ridiculously lucky by fate throwing all of these things in her lap in the matter of a few weeks. This was unbelievable so made the story much less powerful for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

nikachu's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.5

This book definitely needs a trigger warning. But it is so worth to read it and to see Alethea moving towards the recovery of her trauma. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Rape

sophieennis's review

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Toxic relationship, and Violence

daniellekat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

Incredibly powerful and raw, while still being witty and realistic. The writing was outstanding and I loved the use of Trini Creole throughout.
If you have this on your tbr I strongly recommend you look at all the content warnings (not just the summary). I don’t think I was prepared enough for some of the challenging content and that definitely affected my rating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Toxic relationship, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Racism, Racial slurs, and Gun violence

Minor: Body shaming

francica's review

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

This book was hands down one of my favorite Trinidadian books of all time. Was the subject matter difficult to read at times? YES. But this was so well written in perfect Trinidadian prose that the words just leapt off the page for me. 
Domestic violence is one of the number one causes of violent deaths in Trinidad and Tobago. Many women in this country and worldwide suffer in silence. Alethea and Leo's relationship captivated me in so many ways. I know a lot of girls like Allie, whose childhood trauma affected their entire lives so much that they feel undeserving of love, and underserving of friendship. I felt compassion also for Leo, because his hurt came from I think not feeling in control of his life and by having control over Allie, I think was his own coping mechanism.
This book spoke also to the power of friendship. I loved Tamika's character and the timing of her entry into Allie's life as a friend. Sometimes in these situations as women we feel that we do not need to have friends but boy do we need genuine people in our lives to help us through difficult times.
What was also gripping for me was how the writer chronicled the events from the past. It really had me the reader trying to read fast to find out the cause of Allie's trauma and why she was searching for love in all the wrong places. Case in point Mr. Sharma.
Colin, the blast from the past. His entry into the story was EPIC. Clearly you can see that I loved everything about this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

tina94's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Incest, Infertility, Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, and Sexual content

Moderate: Racism