Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

10 reviews

vivilevone's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

4.0

VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE MUSICAL. hachi machi. good book, though. dark and gritty. not exactly inspiring. tragic. hopeful ending. really much more about unlikely found family than any romance. elephant was the best character. 
standout line: "is where you're from the place you're coming from, or where you have roots?"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Rape

nellzzzz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Death, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, Murder, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Violence

alex_grace1's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Sexual content

Minor: Racism, Racial slurs, and Ableism

Some warnings about the sexual content

There is essentially a drunk rape scene. it’s not treated as such by the characters but it is mentioned briefly to be non-consensual and where the main character was nearly blackout drunk. Theres also a pretty graphic stripping scene, a brief masturbation scene, and sexual content all up the wazoo.

adisiki's review against another edition

I hated this and was gonna force myself to finish but why bother. It was written well and the story was constructed well, but I hated the subject matter. The circus sucks and people involved should burn in hell for how they treat those animals. I just can’t do animal cruelty so I couldn’t continue reading this. Also, Jacob was basically sexually assaulted and that’s it? I didn’t enjoy how graphic some of it was, it felt gratuitous and unnecessary, not like it was adding to the story at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Sexual assault

annmierl's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Sexual content, Death, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Infidelity, Death of parent, Ableism, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Antisemitism, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

sarahbethhh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Rape, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism

Minor: Mental illness

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Murder, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Excrement, Antisemitism, Confinement, Ableism, Fatphobia, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Vomit, Car accident, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Dementia, Misogyny, Racism, Trafficking, and Death of parent

planetshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

I don’t know whether it’s just because of who I am, but I don’t think this is very romantic. It is very centered around thoughts of sex and overly anatomical descriptions of bodies (boobs’ descriptions were weird and often related to acidic fruits and penises sounded repulsive), but doesn’t feel at all like other books I’ve read that are categorized as romances.

The way Jacob — 90 (or 93) — is written is wonderful. I don’t know exactly what elders think, but I grew up with grandparents as my guardians and I feel an oddly sentimental connection with the more utilitarian thoughts that were written.

I feel this may be worth mentioning: the author uses non-colloquial vocabulary when referring to a body. If that might be uncomfortable for you, you probably should let this one go.

Nonetheless, I liked it and thought it was a fun journey to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Classism, Rape, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Death, Animal death, Infidelity, Murder, and Sexual assault

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Car accident, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Cursing, Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Death, Murder, Blood, Chronic illness, Drug use, Rape, Sexism, Stalking, Violence, Body horror, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Toxic relationship

roseofphantom's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Aside from a problematic scene, this was a wonderful and beautifully written story!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Sexual assault

With a book like this, you go into it knowing there's going to be descriptions of abuse. That's what's on the back cover when you read it. Just know it's pretty graphic a couple of times. Also there is a sexual assault scene that serves absolutely nothing to help the plot. If you would like to know what happens please keep reading

Jacob gets really drunk and two women get excited about him being a new employee and decide to give him a "proper" welcome. They start fondling him and other things but he's so drunk he actually starts to throw up. Then he blacks out and actually says later that he "doesn't know if he's a virgin anymore". And it never really does anything to help things