Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

22 reviews

bookworm_ran's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Grief, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Rape

michaelion's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

Presents itself as a book about the inner turmoil of being the center of a love triangle, but really it's about the horrors of the American "justice" system and what American prison does to not just a person but the people they love.

I got emotional twice. Twice!!! That's a great feat. That really doesn't happen often. What beautiful writing too. There were several moments I had to gasp, pause the audiobook, pull back the book, and reread the line. My goodness. Wow. The ending lost me a little bit that's why it's not a 4.75 rating but still. Wow!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Racism, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Miscarriage, Violence, Abortion, Classism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, and Self harm

Minor: Homophobia

brisha's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Sexual content, Cursing, Rape, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Violence, Grief, Police brutality, Sexism, Misogyny, and Alcohol

jg34's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

This felt very real and emotional and brings up very important questions. I felt a bit unsatisfied by the ending but thats just my opinion because I was hoping it would go another way.

I was rooting for Roy, Andre and celestial just didn’t do it for me either because the story didn’t sell it or because my early bias. Though I suppose the author did not need to sell it, that’s not really what the story is about. Either way JUSTICE FOR ROY

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Cancer, Blood, Violence, Abortion, Death of parent, and Sexual content

Minor: Death, Self harm, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

Sex scenes are not detailed or graphic. A long portion of this book has a character set in prison. One pretty violent scene otherwise some other topics mentioned a bit but not in detail

dudette's review against another edition

reflective 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? It's complicated

2.0

 Intriguing and interesting outline. Good start but the story couldn't keep up. A serious racist issue got lost into a love triangle. It was hard to connect with any of the characters:

• The author tried so hard to describe Celestial as this independent woman that "doesn't belong to anyone" but she has never acted like one. Not once.

• Andre was plain boring.

• I liked Roy better than the others. He was more raw, however, the author lost me because of all the unnecessary sexual descriptions. All I will remember about him is that he wanted to have sex without a condom...twice, just "to have nothing between them". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Cancer and Abortion

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

This gripped me right from the beginning and I haven’t had a book cause such strong emotions in me for a while. 

The writing is phenomenal, the characters have depth, and the plot just never lets up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Death, and Abortion

Minor: Sexual content, Cancer, and Terminal illness

sandras's review

challenging emotional tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion and Sexual content

saskiahill's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautifully written and moving. Thoroughly recommend the audiobook version read by Sean Crisden and Eisa Davis

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual content, Death, Cancer, Racism, Sexual assault, Rape, Death of parent, and Racial slurs

Minor: Abortion, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Pregnancy

machenn's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Death of parent, Abortion, and Racial slurs

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

3.0

Heartbreaking novel of a marriage. It was a very slow story that I couldn’t get into when reading a physical copy so I switched to audio. I enjoyed the switching POVs and the storytelling via letters in the first half.

I didn’t like Celestial or Roy, they both have good points but also both make awful decisions. By the end I hated them both

especially after Roy kept begging Celestial for sex after getting out, making excuses to not use protection. THEN HE WANTS CREDIT FOR NOT RAPING HER?! They’re both awful people.

. I understand it’s difficult circumstances and it may be more realistic but it made the book less enjoyable for me personally when I don’t like either person. Plus neither of them had much development it seemed.

The book started out well but the second half was boring and with some of the actions of Roy and Celestial, I kind of wished I DNFd. It was an okay book with a good premise but didn’t enjoy the execution as much as I expected to.

TW/CW: rape, abortion, cancer (brief mention), death of parent, grief, incarceration, sexual content, infidelity, dubious consent/coercion, racism, violence, misogyny

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abortion, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Cancer, Death of parent, and Grief