Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

8 reviews

g1lg4mesh's review

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I find myself in a pickle of sorts in reviewing this book- I cannot in good faith blindly recommend it, and yet it is simultaneously the most incredible text I have ever engaged with. Lolita simply redefines the standard of the masterpiece, building not a glass ceiling (such tangibilities are beneath it), rather, casting the colloquial “bar” to the very heavens, where it may never be seen again. Only read this book if you are prepared to finish it- know too that this is no simple matter- but read this book, if you may be so bold. It will challenge you, and you may want to hurl it into a fire at times, but still, you simply must make it to that final page. This is a book that redefines the 5th star, and shakes any attempt at literary tier lists to its very core.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body shaming, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Car accident, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

haleymonkey5000's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, Homophobia, Racism, Stalking, and Alcohol

kelisabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

2.5

It feels wrong to rate this high, though it was incredibly well written

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, Incest, Infidelity, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

lacey_wi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Murder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Incest, Gore, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Death, Child abuse, and Car accident

josierosser's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Misogyny

Minor: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Alcohol, Medical content, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

slimepuppy's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Scary, disgusting and incredibly well written. Vivid storytelling and fleshed out, believable characters - even at their worst, most despicable. The sheer sadness I felt for Dolores and her tragic, doomed fate made me want to cry and at times I just had to drop the kindle and take a breather.

Only major complaint I can think of right now is: too much French. There are whole passages written in French, and no translation was provided in my cpoy. As a result, entire sentences were lost to me, because I was not about to transcribe whole phrases into google translate at one in the morning. As Dolly amusingly put: "But do you mind very much cutting out the French? It annoys everybody." I am everybody!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Death, Rape, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Vomit, and Infidelity

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Racism, and Incest

kenchingfox's review against another edition

challenging dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Bullying, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Stalking

directorpurry's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

CW: There are so many in this bad boy... Pedophilia and victim blaming, mostly, but also SO MUCH statutory rape, Spoilerdeath of a parent, kidnapping, description of a corpse, stalking.
Updated 2020 rating: 3.5 stars

This is one of a short list of books where I can understand why some school districts and governments choose to ban it. While I find the writing to be absolutely amazing, at times almost breathtaking, the contents contained are questionable at best, atrocious at worst.
At times, Lolita is a book that can feel necessary to defend the reasons why you like it. I'll do my best to explain here:

Not to knock down the high-brow element of my review, but there's a Tumblr joke that has made the rounds about how the opposite of a "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" (usually a film trope character) is a "Depressed Goblin Nightmare Man" and how that is often a trope character of literature.
Not only that, it's often a popular trope character. (I'm looking at you, Erik, from The Phantom of the Opera.) Humbert Humbert is absolutely a "Depressed Goblin Nightmare Man" (DGNM from here on out).
He has combination of what it takes to make a DGNM, such as the cocky attitude. While HH spends most of the book degrading himself as "weak" or non-confrontational, he also spends the majority of the book strutting around like Lolita owes herself to him. Whenever she does something he doesn't like, he emotionally manipulates her into sleeping with him or forgiving him. HH also constantly blames his victims, these "Nymphets," who have done nothing more than behave like themselves, children who have no concept of the way he watches, stalks, and harasses many of them. Although he says he knows what he's doing wrong, HH ultimately places the blame on everyone but himself.

And Nabokov clearly knows what he's doing.
I've often noticed that many writers of "high" literature explore taboo topics far, far past the bounds of normalcy or even understanding. But it takes both an excellent writer and a committed reader to see past the surface topic to find the commentary underneath. Which isn't to say I blame anyone who hates or chooses not to even attempt this book because of the topic - I absolutely understand why people would want to chuck this book off a cliff.
But when I read it, I can see Nabokov's sarcastic attitude behind the words, the way he twists HH's own words against him as a narrator, making him at once unreliable and perfectly believable in his earnestness.
Lolita is clearly a girl suffering intense distress from her, at times, neglectful mother to her constant abuse and rape at the hands of HH. She shows many signs of abused children, from hiding food and money to her acting out in school and losing interest in hobbies.
There are many marks of Nabokov's deep involvement with these characters. I love the way he wrote this terrible book, and his characters are completely fascinating to me.

Additionally, I read this book for the first time just as I graduated high school, when I was personally quite enraptured by man DGNM in media. Outside of school work, this was one of the first "adult" "literature" books I elected to read on my own and I was completely swept away by the writing.
I'd like to think I've matured enough now as a reader to critique HH's status as a DGNM and as a writer to really absorb and understand the craft that went into this novel.
It's hard to say I "like" this book, but I would, perhaps, say I respect it. While perhaps no longer a 5-star because of my more nuanced understanding of the actual topic, rather than reading it when I was, in fact, still a teenager/child myself, the strong writing will always push it close to 4-stars for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Murder, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, and Rape

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Child death and Physical abuse