Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Лолита

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Лолита by Vladimir Nabokov

87 reviews

niles_reads's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark sad 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

The whole review

I’ve never been more disturbed by a piece of media in my life.

I’ve read “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, the book many view “the scariest book ever written”, I’ve read books heavy on body horror like “Bunny” by Mona Awad or “Boy Parts” by Eliza Clark and felt nothing while doing so.

My stomach flipped from page one. Genuinely the worst thing that was ever written.

The writing is hard to get into at first, but once you actually begin understanding the way the main character speaks, or well, writes, the text becomes easier to consume.

The main character is so self-centered, thinks so highly of himself and the way he justifies his horrendous actions to himself made me want to punch something so badly. And not in the Irina from “Boy parts” type a way where you’re kinda enjoying her selfishness. Maybe because his actions are WAY worse than hers.

You don’t quite realize it while reading it, but his every-now-and-then mentions of his “good-looks” is kinda a critique of how beauty and conventional attractiveness can come a long way, disguised as another way of him being full of himself. I remember scoffing and rolling my eyes every time he’d repeat himself, but after finishing it I could see what Nabokov was trying to do.

The truth about this novel is terrifying; that anyone can be a horrendous monster.

From what I remember, he grew up in a normal environment and was a highly respected individual. He wasn’t some abused child or mistreated teenager. He was, what the people around him saw as, a normal person.

I’ve never really understood what “Seeing someone through the main character’s version of them” meant, until chapter 32 where we finally get a glimpse of her humanity; of her wanting a normal life, of being a child wanting someone to call “family”. Or how even when she was living in poverty and while having a child on the way at 17, she refused to live back with a man who took away her childhood and both physically and mentally broke her.

I’m really debating on what to give it. While being a book about such a disturbing topic, it is extremely well written and it clearly shows a message.

I can’t force myself to give it anything but a 4.75.

Content Warnings