Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Bluebeard's Castle by Anna Biller

13 reviews

s_armstrong's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.25

good god what was that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

brettashleyyy's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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

1.5

….Manderfield? Really?
This did not work. At all. Should’ve stayed as a screenplay. It read like bad fanfiction and made my eyeballs hurt from how much I was rolling them. The FMC sucks.  The constant references to its source material was beating me over the head to a bloody pulp. The overexplaining/telling not showing of basic feminist concepts, overuse of blatantly bland similes, and the overuse of the word “lugubrious” reeks of amateur writing. I could tell Anna Biller wanted to capture the melodrama and camp of the giallo, Hitchcock, pulp fiction of the 60s/70s wrapped in this not-at-all feminist retelling of the classic fairytale. The thing is, trying to capture that essence on the page is not possible, and trying to make a pastiche of someone as iconic as Hitchcock was going to inevitably be a failure. Even Pitbull knew that. I’ve never tried to power through an audiobook so quickly in my life for the sheer joy of being done with this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

kiwisnyds's review

While I liked Biller's The Love Witch, this novel is not very well written or edited. While reading I felt as if Biller was attempting to use her amazing skill with visual media, but in novel form it fell flat and just made me feel like it badly needed another round of edits to pare it down. The simplistic and unbelievable dialogue, while in her movies lends to a sense of unease, just did not translate well to the written format. I wanted to love this novel. The presentation of it is stunning. But the disconnect between the main character's supposed knowledge of abuse and how she reacted to it in real life was just so unbelievable. The manipulation of the abuser wa so surface-level and obvious that it makes me wonder how the protagonist couldn't see through it. This novel could have been a great commentary on the insidiousness of abusers and how easy it is to become entrapped, which I feel the author was attempting, but it was done poorly enough that it seemed like a parody of those themes. The novel also didn't actually feel gothic or horror to me. You can describe an old mansion and nightgowns for 12 pages but doing so does not make the work actually gothic. Maybe I'm being harsh, but I just wanted to skim until the end, so instead I put it down. I hope someone else will love and appreciate it. All that said, if Biller decides to write another novel I still might check it out. It can be really hard to get a debut right, and like I said the pieces were there but just didn't quite make it to the final work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting

eena's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

“Where is the wife’s side of the story in these novels? We only have the husband’s side. The husband who wishes to discard an inconvenient wife.”

This book was truly engaging and it was genuinely a good modern gothic “romance/horror” type of novel but I have to give it a 2.5/5 stars. I read this because I watched The Love Witch couple of months back and saw that Anna Biller also wrote a book, I liked the first part the most and found myself kind of getting tired towards the end. 

Part of me also felt like it was a great decision to have a third person pov because you will be able to study yourself too and how you react with everything that’s happening. But yeah, the writing wasn’t phenomenal but I’m glad that I still read and finished it, it could have been better but it’s okay. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Murder

marinalikeaboatyard's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.0

emerald fennell would direct the shit out of this 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Colonisation

thisischels's review

dark mysterious fast-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

2.5

Really wanted to love this one, but the style just wasn’t for me. Execution fell flat, and I felt myself wanting to just get through it to have it finished. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

i_would_prefer_not_to's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

I can't tell if it's written badly as pastiche or if it's just badly written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

lateromantic's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

A slow start - if you're a fan of Biller's films you'll like it, the prose has that same stilted, photographic quality as her scripts, and she drops in many references and aesthetic tidbits. I wouldn't call it feminist so much as female-gaze - there is rage but no righteousness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

astudyinsass's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

The cat should have lived. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Murder

literally_mint's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting