Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

72 reviews

marilululu's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Infidelity, Ableism, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Sexism, Misogyny, and Mental illness

viviralnorte's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

0.5

Este libro es adictivo, de esos que te hacen desvelarte y preparar café a las ocho de la noche para seguir leyendo. 

Llegué al final con el pecho apretado. Siento que viví en Nápoles de los años cincuenta. Caminé por las calles del barrio, entré en las casas, vi las cacerolas tiznadas y rotas… 

Elena es una narradora encantadora: sincera, vulnerable, imperfecta, reflexiva. Lila es definitivamente uno de mis personajes favoritos de la literatura contemporánea. Hay muchos personajes, y están tan bien caracterizados que en la fiesta final me aprecia estarlos viendo. 

Leí la traducción al francés y no leí la sinopsis, así que fui descubriendo todo poco a poco y fue una experiencia muy atrayente. Creo que la traducción del título al francés devela demasiado, en español me parece mucho mejor. 

Es un libro adictivo, de esos que te hacen desvelarte y preparar café a las ocho de la noche para seguir leyendo. 

El final se queda abierto, se nota que es una saga, lo que puede o no gustarles. A mi me parece ideal. 

No se me ocurre ninguna crítica. Quizás que el inicio puede parecer lento, pero luego todo toma fuerza. 

Me encantó. 
Es mi primer acercamiento a Elena Ferrante y me declaro su fans absoluta. Quiero leer toda su obra.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Sexual assault, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

deenmachine's review

medium-paced

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

4.0

Slow start -- the descriptions of the school competitions wore on a bit long -- but worth persevering. Damn does she know how to write a cliffhanger ending!! I love reading explorations of women's friendships and this one was deliciously complex, layered with class politics and competition but at the core it's about a friendship where they care more than they can admit about the other's opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Murder

77mimi's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

an incredibly honest depiction of girlhood, adolescence, the loss of childhood innocence and female friendship dynamics

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Child abuse

therecoveringbookworm's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Sexism, and Child abuse

augie_'s review

challenging dark emotional sad 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: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Violence, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Sexual violence

iphi's review

emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

The favorite book of everyone's mom! With good reason (question mark) - But I definitely can see the appeal. I love the way the book captures girlhood in Napoli - I find the protagonist very much problematic and insufferable but I think that this is intentional (question mark) even though my own mum did not register it as such. A bit heavy on the melodrama but it kinda fits the vibe so far so I'm not complaining. Keen to read the next one
P.S Most ATROCIOUS series of covers I've ever seen. Jail to whoever designed and chose them
PPS Do we think the writer knows that her character is not straight? (cause my mother definitely did not register it so I'm leaning towards "no")

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse

miller8d's review

adventurous 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book is brilliant in a way that makes me say “This is the story of a real life,” not “omg I love this book.” Like, I don’t really feel like I read a fictional story. (I actually have no clue if it’s autobiographical or not but I won’t google it because I don’t want to spoil it). Perhaps for that reason, this book took me an incredible long time to read. Like, months on end of picking it up and loving it, but being unable to pick it up again because it was so difficult to read. I don’t even think it was actually difficult literature for me, but instead so emotionally dense and detail-heavy that I couldn’t pay anything but 100% attention while reading, otherwise I’d have to go back dozens of pages to figure out why I was confused. Also,

this is perhaps the only book or story I’ve ever known which accurately depicts how tumultuous and confusing and painful it can be to survive childhood and grow up. I absolutely loved her depiction of how the child’s mind can equally spin fantasy and horrific terror on the same coin— not simple boogieman stuff, but much scarier, finding awful and disturbing fears in/around the mundane figures of your social world and daily life, even when there’s nothing truly wrong there.

Beautiful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Misogyny, Child abuse, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Death, Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexism, Grief, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Self harm, Infidelity, and Emotional abuse

serena_hien's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death

flovntic's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Rape, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Sexism, Classism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship