Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

53 reviews

annabulkowski's review

emotional sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Violence, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Self harm, Rape, Racism, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Incest, Infertility, Gun violence, Grief, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, and Confinement

cmvoelkel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

4.5
I listened to the audio version of this book and couldn't be more grateful that I did.  The narration is really impeccable and so adds to the power of this very understated and poetic telling of an extremely gripping and devastating story.  This is truly excellent writing, the only thing I missed about listening to the audiobook was not being able to underline so many understatedly beautiful passages in this text.  The only thing which I didn't love about this story was the implausibility of the interconnectedness of all these stories, but that was a minor quibble about a truly excellent novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Child death

edie_reads's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Domestic abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Incest and Child abuse

booklover_'s review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

If I were to summarise this book in a sentence - a Shakespearean love tragedy, set in Barbados. 

This book is a highly emotive story of the underbelly of Barbados. It beautifully depicts the cyclic nature of abuse and the struggle to break away from the strong hold of intergenerational trauma. We see the rawness and vulnerabilities of each character and their backstories highlight the ways in which family and environment play a pivotal role in our development.

Although quite tragic, the book has an authentic ending that adds to the underlying themes explored. I couldn’t put the book down - highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexual content, and Violence

luckylauren98's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Murder, Grief, and Excrement

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, and Incest

Minor: Drug use

laumilne's review

It was a bookclub pick, and it was too violent and graphic for me. I kept reading even after I first wanted to stop because of wanting to finish it for book club and in the hope that there was some sort of redemption arc or that the bad guy gets his due, but it just got more and more graphic and awful. I definitely should have read the trigger warnings before starting.

First stopped reading for a few weeks at

Baby's death after Adan and Lala fight over her and he hurts her

, picked up again and read more

rape, violence and abuse

and I'm struggling to see how it can resolve in a way I'd want to finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, and Child death

Moderate: Abortion, Gun violence, and Child abuse

jennikreads's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

5.0

 HOW THE ONE-ARMED SISTER SWEEPS HER HOUSE tells the stories of a handful of people in an island town. Two very traumatic things happen right at the beginning of the story that set the stage for the story to unfold. It’s a little bit mystery and a whole lot character study. 

 

This is gorgeously written and I could not put it down. The story that unfolds is so layered and nuanced. I loved that Jones would slip in the stories of other characters, told from their perspectives, that we could easily assume we would only hear about from the perspectives of others. It gave such a rich entangled feel to the story and made your heart ache just that much more for the central characters. 

 

I was honestly very hesitant to read this one after hearing everyone who mentioned it shout from the roof top that it was brutal and the list of content warnings (right fully so) were endless. But, a fellow bookstagrammer spoke about it in a way that intrigued me and when I reached out to ask her about her reading experience. She assured me that it is not gratuitous. And that’s absolutely true. 

 

The violence and abuse in this book are absolutely unsettling, and will genuinely trigger some people, but they are not without context and they are never there for the sake of shock. While the content warnings span the entire length of the novel, there are definitely what I would call breaks from that type of content to let your mind breathe. 

 

All that to say, that if you, like me, were unsure whether this would be for you, give it a go, but please review the content warnings first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion, Drug use, Incest, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

booking_along's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, and Violence

derigibleplums's review against another edition

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

5.0

I'm not sure if I liked this book a 5 stars amount or if I just fell in love with Danielle Vitalis's narration. Before I started listening someone described this book as containing nearly every type of violence apart from war and I'd say that's about right really. I was so prepared to be furious with the ending but was pleasantly surprised.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault and Gun violence

heather3086's review

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence