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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
Les Hauts De Hurle-vent by Emily Brontë, Emily Brontë, Frédéric Delebecque
310 reviews
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
really enjoyed this, especially with the framing device of a nosy and catty housekeeper's impossibly perfect memory. it was very compelling to read about the trials of a bunch of fucked up people in the English countryside. i totally get why this was a heater in the 1800s. the happy ending for the children feels earned and apt, and it's satisfying to see the cycle of abuse put to an end through compassion, despite Heathcliff's best efforts to perpetuate it. just goes to show that some men can't be fixed!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse
Minor: Rape
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic relationship
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"If he loved with all the power of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years, as I could in a day."
This is a tragic and devastating story of lost love and toxic relationships. I didn't fully appreciate that till I started reading. 4 Stars for how this story made me feel. Emily Brontë's words are devastatingly soulful. The love declaration after death caused my own heart's death. I felt those tears so deeply throughout the chapters, and the way the yearning was explored...I was distraught.
I skimmed over all the parts with Yorkshire accents because I didn't have the strength to sound everything out, but I liked the depth it added to the characters. I still have no clue who's who and what was really going on - I recommend reading a chapter summary before each one as it helped me actually appreciate the story rather than crying with confusion. Also let's not forget that literally everybody married their cousin at least once during the story, and they all changed names but they were all the same names...so that didn't help.
I HATED majority of the characters, and actually cheered for one character's death, as sad as it was. The only people I really liked in the whole book were Isabella (sweet, caring Isabella who didn't deserve that life), and Nelly. That woman was a mother, a friend, and was the only one who truly deserves to go to the heaven yearned for throughout. Adult Catherine was catty and SO DRAMATIC. Actually every character was, why are we all throwing fits as soon as we don't get our way? But it was almost worth it for the second-hand embarrassment when nobody believed them, so they just had to walk away like nothing happened AHAHA, deserved. That all being said, Cathy was strangely loveable - child Cathy was definitely her mother's daughter, except I loved the empathy that lay beneath. Little Cathy ultimately did not deserve that much death, I hope she's happy now.
This book did feel long though, It only took me a couple days because I was determined to get through it so the actual reading didn't drag. That being said, the story is slow paced but something is always happening between characters or to a specific character's heart. It was definitely an enjoyable (painful) experience and I love that my Dad gave this to me. It's his favourite book and I'm so glad the story did his love justice.
Special mention for some of my favourite quotes because the hilarity and relatability of Brontë's writing should never be overlooked:
"canine mother"
"What vain weather-cocks we are!"
"I shall be was dirty as I please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty".
"frittering your life away in silly trifles"
"your mother was a wicked slut"
"I needn't repeat that, because you would call it silly"
"don't degrade yourself into an abject reptile"
"get in, and don't annoy me."
"If you had any real griefs, you'd be ashamed to waste a tear on this little contrariety."
The ending was a lovely circle really and just added to the theme of yearning. Strangely, I am so glad I got to experience this pain, and I'm glad I get to love someone in my own life as deeply as Heathcliff loved Cathy. That being said, I can't imagine living a life with that much misery. I want to live my own freedom the way Cathy should have been able to.
"Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me alone in the abyss where I cannot find you." Oh God it is unutterable. I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Read along with an audiobook so that it could distinguish all the different characters better, also, I went into the book with many descriptions from other readers to make it seem like a romance. It is anything but that!!! All the characters were bad people, this I can see was the intention by the author, and I in fact can sympathise with Heathcliff; despite this, the level of romanticisation of him online is quite disturbing and leads to suspects that they must not have properly read the book.Whilst the book was still enjoyable after the death of Catherine Earnshaw, I found it quite lacking to the first half of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Classism
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness
Moderate: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Religious bigotry
Minor: Animal cruelty
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Give Nelly Dean a medal for putting up with these families shit.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Death of parent
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping
Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Sexual violence
Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Incest
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
my favorite book ever, i wish white people could read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Colonisation
constant racial abuse towards the male protagonist and misogyny quite literally killed the female protagonist. it's very important that the relationship was doomed by being between a presumably romani brown-skinned man and a british white woman centuries ago. also there's a necrophilia scene, it's more romantic than sexual but that should still be a warning.
there's a strong case for the male protagonist to have been written as a vampire due to the myth's more grounded nature at the time the book was written and various coincidences. vampires were told to be created either by "contagion" (not likely) or suicide. this last possibility is plausible enough with the subtext and the same character kills himself (presumably again) by stopping to eat by the end of his life and the book.