Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon

261 reviews

katmystery's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

2.0

This book barely passes the Bechdel test. For something literally narrated by a woman, that is pretty bad.

For the first 40%, this was an engaging historical fic, albeit a bit slow, about a witty former WWII army nurse who finds herself brought back in time to 1740s Scotland. Then, when the romance plot started, suddenly it was all about her 18th century love interest, a character who Gabaldon endlessly romanticized despite his highly abusive and controlling behavior. When I wasn’t horrified by Jamie, I was bored by hundreds upon hundreds of pages of conversations and events that added nothing to the plot or character development, and I quickly grew to be so irritated by the narrator that I just wanted it to end. In addition to all of this, all the women who are sexually assaulted in this book (and there are a lot) are blamed for the assault, and the so-called “feminist” narrator does this, too. She’s barely more progressive than people from the 1700s; for half the book, she doesn’t care about anything but the abusive love interest. Also, the two gay characters are a rapist and a pedophile. This book was written in the '90s. That's so homophobic.

I only finished this because of the sunk cost fallacy. 2 stars for the historical aspects, which were well done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Pedophilia

frantically's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

If by this point you haven't heard of Outlander, you've been living under a rock. I'm not going to add anything meaningful in my review here that hasn't been said before.

I really enjoyed this! I listened to it as an audiobook and the parts that would've probably been tedious in book form still worked well that way. I'm up to season 5? 6? now and I really just wanted to go back to the Claire and Jamie of season 1 for some time <3

I took multiple breaks and listened to whole other audiobooks during this and I think that's how I didn't end up hating it 🙈 It is very long (obviously) but it is also very good. The writing is excellent and Claire is such a good main character.

Would recommend, even if you've already watched the series :) I still enjoyed it a lot

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual violence, Rape, and War

Minor: Child death, Grief, Death, Abortion, Animal death, and Death of parent

au_conn1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Confinement, Physical abuse, Blood, Death, Sexual assault, Body horror, Murder, Torture, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cursing, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse and Suicidal thoughts

biliboc_diana_simona's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Murder, Domestic abuse, Rape, War, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Child death, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Physical abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Infertility, Grief, and Child abuse

betterthanitsseams's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

emilyada11's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: War, Homophobia, and Child abuse

noggets's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence

turtlekat23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

2.5

I didn’t dislike this book but at 800+ pages and as crazy as some people are over it, I didn’t love it as much as I expected to. The characters are great and the writing is good. I found Claire’s angstiness irritating at times. There was also too much spice for me. At times it was like, here we go again. Also the amount of attempted SAs. I think of Claire alone there were 6-7. I found the last part of the book difficult to read and finish. I won’t give spoilers but it was detailed and gruesome. I will likely give the second book a shot but if they are all like this, I don’t know that I’ll finish the series, which is a shame but I want more plot and outside the bedroom action in 800 or more pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, and Death

benditlikebecka's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia

kira_laine's review against another edition

There was too much SA and too many near-rapes for me. The TV show might be better for me to enjoy the story.

The last straw was after Jamie beat Clair with a belt against her will and admitted that he liked it. He then coerced her into having extremely rough sex twice the next day. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault