Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Rubyfruit Jungle

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

7 reviews

fr0gsonmushrooms's review

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

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

2.75

Ruby Fruit Jungle started off strong. Actually, I loved the first 50%, but after that it kinda started going downhill. There were a few problems mainly in the last part that definitely made me take a few stars off.

Don’t get me wrong the book was very well written and I loved the way Rita portrayed Molly’s thoughts. I even read it in four days (although I was literally doing nothing for those four days). However, I can’t give this book much of a higher rating because of everything that went wrong in the end.

Pros:
1. Fast paced so it was able to keep my attention and was a quick read. I struggle with books keeping my attention and due to the very quick pace of this book, I was able to get through it quickly.
2. I like how the main moral is not to give up and to push to do the things you want to do. Molly never cared what anyone thought and worked her ass off to get into college and eventually graduate. Even with all her challenges, she pushed her way through now only as a woman, but a queer woman.

Now the cons: (some spoilers)
1. Around page 132, Molly shit talks butch lesbians saying they are stupid and ugly. When I was reading it, I had to stop and take a second to be like “wow she really just did that.”
2. There was A LOT OF antisemitism. Not just once or twice but sprinkled all throughout the book. At first, I was just like eh, as a Jewish person it’s the basic stereotypes, but it just got worse.
3. In the fourth part of the book Molly rapes Polina. And they just play it off as an ok thing to happen. Molly force kisses her and then forces her on the bed. She admits it and says it’s fine because "she’s drunk and knows she knows she wants it" They did end up together for a short while but it’s still not ok.
4. They just casually mention incest being ok and normal?! About pages 187-188, Molly and Alice have a whole conversation about how Alice wants to sleep with her mom and thinks her mom wants to sleep with her too. Then Molly just agrees with her.

All those moments concerned me. So overall, the book was okay, but I wouldn’t recommend it and it’s definitely not in my tops.

I'm leaving my review as a 2.75 for now, but I think it's maybe because my patner gave it to me. Therefore, I really want to love it as much as I did when I started it, but the cons are really just not okay. Maybe after I think about this book for longer the star review will change.

Content Warnings

whimsykat's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

twilightfan420's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Rubyfruit Jungle is unlike anything I’ve read before. It was fast-paced and witty while addressing such evil injustices which is rare in a book dealing with queer themes. Molly is such a strong protagonist and I couldn’t get enough of her story. I’ve always loved a coming of age novel, so one featuring a lesbian main character was a dream come true.

Content Warnings