Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

13 reviews

ddnreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

My heart ache for Nahr and Bilal 🥺🥺
But this book is much more than the love story of Nahr and Bilal (eventhough their love is extraordinarily tender and healing). 

Unputdownable and sharp, Against the Loveless World told a life of a woman who tried to find her way among the generational trauma of colonialism, refugee, and occupation. 

I love how the characters are flawed. How bare and jarring they told their lives. I love the raw honesty, the swearing, the curses.

This is a feminist book in its own way. 

I wept for the love mothers share. Their toughness through the worst of conditions. They're the real world's strongest soldiers. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Grief, Cursing, War, Colonisation, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Deadnaming, Genocide, Islamophobia, and Misogyny

holmahoney's review against another edition

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Colonisation, Gore, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Genocide, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Cancer, Islamophobia, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Racism, Torture, and Physical abuse

shieldbearer's review

This book was beautifully written but it didn't grab me the way "Mornings in Jenin" did. There is a lot of heavy, nuanced plotting here, but there are also several ways the plotting falls short, When looked at as a work of fiction, this simply does not do it for me. Part of it is that I can't get invested in the romance. A similar work that I preferred a lot is "Minor Detail"

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Classism, Islamophobia, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Cursing, Sexual violence, Ableism, Alcohol, Infidelity, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Deportation, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Infertility, Abortion, Antisemitism, Outing, and Pregnancy

vanessamariebooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Favorite of the year. Highly recommend, especially for bookclubs or High School English classes. My thoughts here: https://www.youtube.com/live/jHkbo3kEbbg?si=AQwDiPhqLPCpTQey

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, War, Death, Homophobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Ableism, Dementia, and Outing

schlady's review

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

5.0

A painful, haunting, beautifully-written story of a Palestinian refugee woman's loss, suffering, and heartbreak alongside her strength, resistance, and love. The pace of the book is a steady balance of slow and medium throughout, with lyrical passages of devastating events and details sprinkled with moments of joy and hope. This memoir is technically a work of fiction yet it is very much real and historical, a history of brutal settler colonialism that continues into today. This novel is an important book, one that fights back while dancing.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Confinement, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Murder, Sexism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Torture, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Grief, Deportation, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, War, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Car accident, Drug use, Vomit, Infertility, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Animal death

dragongirl271's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“To survive by loving each other means to love our ancestors too. To know their pain, struggles, and joys. It means to love our collective memory, who we are, where we come from.”
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

This book is phenomenal. It's absolutely fantastic in so many ways and I've been putting off this review for over a week because I simply cannot come up with the words that can do it justice.

This is the fictional story of Nahr, a Palestinian woman imprisoned by Israel for her part in the resistance against Israeli settlers. She's in a solitary confinement cell called The Cube with her only human interaction being guards and reporters. After finally getting access to pen and paper, she spends her time writing out her life story, which are the narrative flashbacks that make up the book.

Nahr's tale is one of love, loss, desperation, resiliency, radicalization, resistance, and survival. Her story and her relationships are complicated and messy. An entire book could be written just analyzing her relationship to Um Baraq, who throughout the book plays villain and best friend and savior and confidante. There's quite a few full-circle moments in her relationships that just elevate the storytelling of the novel. Abulhawa is so good at working out all the complexities in a character that make them feel so real and human. I've thought about this book every day since I first started reading it and, were it not for the #JanuaryPagesChallenge, probably would've taken a week or two off from even attempting to read another book to simply just let it sit with me.

1st-person POV. Mixed pacing. Two timelines with the majority of the narrative in the flashbacks leading up to present day. A complicated journey of resisting oppression in many different ways.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: War, Colonisation, Toxic friendship, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Grief, Abortion, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Racism, and Torture

cosycorvid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Sexual content, Deportation, Alcohol, Rape, War, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Infidelity, Death of parent, Dementia, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Hate crime, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Genocide, Grief, Domestic abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Islamophobia, Infertility, Child death, Death, Colonisation, Murder, Medical content, Xenophobia, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Racism, Pregnancy, and Cursing

amluebke's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Deportation, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

flysick's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Police brutality, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy

__lucebrennan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Such an incredible, heart-wrenching book. It brought to light the true pain, suffering but also joy and delight that people have weathered, you can’t help but love Nahr despite everything 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, and War