Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

42 reviews

miller8d's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

This book is brilliant in a way that makes me say “This is the story of a real life,” not “omg I love this book.” Like, I don’t really feel like I read a fictional story. (I actually have no clue if it’s autobiographical or not but I won’t google it because I don’t want to spoil it). Perhaps for that reason, this book took me an incredible long time to read. Like, months on end of picking it up and loving it, but being unable to pick it up again because it was so difficult to read. I don’t even think it was actually difficult literature for me, but instead so emotionally dense and detail-heavy that I couldn’t pay anything but 100% attention while reading, otherwise I’d have to go back dozens of pages to figure out why I was confused. Also,

this is perhaps the only book or story I’ve ever known which accurately depicts how tumultuous and confusing and painful it can be to survive childhood and grow up. I absolutely loved her depiction of how the child’s mind can equally spin fantasy and horrific terror on the same coin— not simple boogieman stuff, but much scarier, finding awful and disturbing fears in/around the mundane figures of your social world and daily life, even when there’s nothing truly wrong there.

Beautiful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Misogyny, Child abuse, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Death, Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexism, Grief, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Self harm, Infidelity, and Emotional abuse

serena_hien's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death

lisafagerlind's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

a little bit of sexual absuse and violence

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual harassment and Child abuse

isabookabel's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

It took me a while to get into this book, but the protagonist's narrative and exploration of her thought processes and emotions are so in-depth I ended up being really absorbed and think I will probably read the rest of the series. I think the complexity of emotion she has for her friend and the way the the author explores this means this book will stay with me for a long time - I can't think of another that explores so many nuances in a female friendship, over such a time period and underpins explicitly telling the reader with suggestions of more. Likewise, the internal self reflection was really profound and not something I come across often in books to this level - especially not combined with a good plot. The relationships were all rich in detail and felt very believable. 4.5 stars currently but had a hard time rating this so may return and bump up or down - partly because of all the reasons above I feel it could easily be a 5 star - but I suppose I don't feel like I love it and have enough affection for it to rate it a 5 at this moment. Partly because I spent about a week reading the first quarter of the book and feeling it drag rather, before then reading the rest in about 2 days. This meant though my feeling towards it changed, at this moment I spent much longer feeling frustrated with it than enjoying reading it. I will probably return to this at a later date and see if 4.5 seems fair. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment

risemini's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Pedophilia, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, War, Ableism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, and Racism

studydniowka's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Piękne świadectwo miłości jednej przyjaciółki do drugiej.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

korttipakka's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Ableism

girlsiread's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

no one can write girlhood like elena ferrante. it’s so unsettling, raw, but so deeply realistic. it explores the politics of italy, mother-daughter relationships, poverty, the male gaze, and friendship all in one and i’m just so obsessed. finished it on my kindle and instantly went to purchase the rest of the series. ty elena ferrante. and here’s to women in translate month :*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Mental illness, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Pedophilia

kaiulanilee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Stalking

butterflight's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Murder

Minor: Sexual harassment, Violence, and Rape