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ludon5681's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Sexual violence, Slavery, Addiction, and Child abuse
Moderate: Drug use, Medical content, and Drug abuse
kanjichris's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Slavery, Torture, Child abuse, Confinement, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Body shaming, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Transphobia
Moderate: Outing, Death, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Violence
tshepiso's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The Parcel follows a Hijra sex worker turned beggar Madhu as she is solicited by a brothel madam to "prepare" a Nepalese child for life as a sex worker. The book is ambling and expansive as we get the history of Madhu and her fellow sex workers' lives in Kathumapura, the red light district of Mumbai.
To describe this story as bleak is an understatement. The centre of this novel is the emotional tumult of our protagonist as she unpacks the ways her family and society as a whole discards her and people like her. Madhu is coarse and vulgar as she sifts through a lifetime of horrific trauma and Irani rarely pulls punches when he describes the gruesome realities of violence, rape, and abuse in the underbelly of Mumbai.
This book is visceral, occasionally vile and reads like an endless onslaught of misery. I don't doubt The Parcel is a well-crafted novel but it couldn't be farther from the kinds of books I enjoy reading and had a thoroughly unpleasant time with it.
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Trafficking
Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape
Minor: Suicide
annabunce's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Transphobia
Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, and Grief
Minor: Animal cruelty