Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Blutbuch by Kim de l'Horizon

7 reviews

tinnuben's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Cursing, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Blood, Animal death, Death, and Misogyny

Minor: Incest and Rape

seulgireads's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Racism, Misogyny, Violence, and Abortion

Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Stalking, Classism, Rape, Eating disorder, Blood, Sexual violence, Slavery, Homophobia, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Outing, Suicide, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Murder

mel_j's review

emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Dementia, and Grief

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, and Racial slurs

Minor: Eating disorder

roach's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.0

 

And here is what I do instead:
I break the circle of children who kill their parents in order to be free, to become themselves. I don't kill my parents. I am giving birth to my mothers.

Blutbuch by nonbinary author Kim de l'Horizon is an autofictional novel about generational trauma, self-discovery, and gender expression. It won the German Book Prize in 2022.

This book plays a lot with language. To begin with, the German language is particularly difficult when it comes to gender-neutral expression, so it is refreshing to read a book that takes the effort to tackle that throughout a full novel. Then past that, the author uses traditional Swiss-German dialect, modern queer talk, and even English to different effects, which showcases how much language changes depending on person and subject. There is something very engaging about a modern voice wielding the language of older generations to make an observation about different lifetimes. The clash of different jargons as the clash of different experiences and perceptions.
The text keeps evolving and changing form as the author seeks to uncover some family secrets, discovers their family's history, and comes to grips with their own relationship to the past and their relatives. Throughout the anecdotes, essayesque self-reflection, and lengthy ancestor biographies, it can seem somewhat aimless at points but ultimately manages to tie it all up very well to make the picture complete.

Blutbuch is unique, it's extremely personal, and it's timely without leaving behind the past. A symbol for the everchanging zeitgeist and a representation of the different kinds of struggles for one's own identity without antagonizing the past.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Misogyny, and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Incest

lokes's review

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, Outing, Rape, Sexism, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Vomit, Drug abuse, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Slavery, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Stalking, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Gore, Grief, Body shaming, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Antisemitism, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, and Racism

pan_to_ffel's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Dementia, Death, Stalking, Sexual content, War, Violence, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion, War, Forced institutionalization, Rape, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage

likerealpeople's review

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion and Sexual content

Moderate: Blood, Transphobia, and Dementia

Minor: Rape, Incest, Excrement, Miscarriage, and Forced institutionalization