Reviews tagging 'Incest'

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

10 reviews

megelizabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

"We are all, Esme decides, just vessels through which identities pass: we are lent features, gestures, habits, then we hand them on. Nothing is our own. We begin in the world as anagrams of our antecedents."

I will never, ever get over this book. It's disjointed and trippy as hell and downright odd at times - and it's also completely fucking devastating. It got under my skin in a way no other book has in a long time and I just know that what happened to Esme will haunt me forever. The mystery of what got her institutionalised draws you in and, when you find out, you wish you never had because it's almost beyond comprehension and at the same time so frighteningly imaginable...and that's got to be a sign of a truly brilliant book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Rape, and Misogyny

Moderate: Incest, Death, Child death, and Infidelity

lil_owl_reads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective fast-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

4.25

Maggie O’Farrell truly never fails to deliver. I think this book lacks a bit of the prose and artistry Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait have, but that is made up for with a jaw-dropping, intriguing plot, with so much history of sanatoriums, asylums and women’s treatment through history thrown in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Incest

sophiemcauley's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Rape, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Child death, Confinement, Murder, Death, Dementia, and Grief

geckojordy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Moderate: Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Incest, and Child death

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Dementia

znvisser's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

Hmmm, this was my second O'Farrell and once again it failed to really resonate with me, even though there were some things about it I actually appreciated: the novel structure, Esme's story and piecing together Kitty's memories. What especially didn't help his time, is that there were two (petty) things that I particularly disliked: 1) the dog and 2) the brother.

1) Why include a dog if A) you don't even name them and B) you leave them behind all the time, especially when you're taking a trip as fun as the beach?? And 2) The very least you can do when you (repeatedly)(want to) sleep with your step sibling, is not. calling. them. your. brother/sister. all the time.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Dementia, Child death, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Pregnancy, Incest, Infidelity, and Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

charlereads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Death, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Abandonment, Confinement, Sexual assault, Bullying, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Violence

rhi4794's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Incest

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

informative 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Dementia, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Abandonment

aseel_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

i really like how maggie writes and the stories she chooses to tell. i think this was a great snapshot of what happens to girls who do not bend to society's ridiculous rules. i liked the plot twist but i thought that Iris was a bit of underexplored character

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, and Violence

alicea's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox centers on 3 women and spans two different time periods. Much of it is quite disjointed (purposefully so I reckon) and there's quite a bit of jumping around between points of view and time periods. And there are no chapter breaks so this flip flopping is accomplished through page breaks instead. The reader follows Iris, Esme, and Kitty in the present day as well as their remembrances of past events. Iris is a young woman running a secondhand clothing store who has a very unusual romantic life. (I thought about adding this to the trigger warning at the bottom but in the end decided not to. You'll have to read the book for yourself to see if you agree with my decision.) Kitty is Iris's grandmother who is suffering from Alzheimer's and living in a nursing home. Her POV is full of jumbled and incomplete recollections from her past. Many of those revolve around her sister Esme who is certainly billed as the primary character but is the one I feel like I didn't fully comprehend. I'm afraid of giving too much away but since this is in the blurb I feel like it's okay to tell you that when we meet Esme in the present day she has been locked away in a psychiatric hospital for SIXTY-ONE YEARS. Let that sink in for a moment. O'Farrell is clearly looking to start a discussion about the injustices women suffered not so long ago when they were shut away in these institutions by their families for infractions like crying too much, talking back to their husbands, or disobedience to their parents. (I'd be in a lot of trouble if I lived back then.) I've read other books that delve into the topic of wrongful imprisonment in mental facilities (one book was nonfiction and written by a reporter who disguised herself as a patient) but none where the patient was away for so long before being released. 

I picked this one up solely because I loved O'Farrell's writing in Hamnet and I wanted more of that delicious prose. This is one of her earlier works and so has a very different literary style (I'm now thinking this could be deliberate because of the subject matter). This hasn't put me off exploring more of her writing in the least. I honestly don't know if I can say that I either liked or disliked The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. It's one of those books that when you close the cover you say aloud, "What was that?". So because I'm on the fence I'm giving this one a 5/10. 😬

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Rape, Incest, Dementia, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Infertility