Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld

15 reviews

barelyalex's review against another edition

dark 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

5.0

Haunting. I think about this book often, there were parts that cut through me. Unabashedly real and important. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicide, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Eating disorder, Incest, Sexual assault, Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, and Antisemitism

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, and Self harm

paperknotbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I think this will throw off my reader friend who’ve all rated this book 1-3/5 ⭐️s from the disturbing content. Yes, there is a lot of “ick,”  perversion, and animal cruelty, but I was charmed by Rijneveld’s writing and submerged in the story.  I loved the narrative voice: obviously young and naive, but with literary aptitude for quiet details. Probably will bumpy this up to a 5-⭐️ if it truest borrows itself into my memory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Grief, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Incest, Sexual assault, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Gore, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Torture, and Self harm

rhysied's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Child abuse, Torture, Incest, Suicide, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, and Grief

emzilia's review against another edition

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

4.0

This is an incredibly dark and disturbing novel, but the graphic content is juxtaposed by the poetic and beautiful writing from the perspective of a traumatised, hurting, child. It captures the way we used to think as children and would make logic connections to the things around us. For Jas, however, her sense of the world is informed by tragedy and disfunction. 

This is a beautiful novel because it is written beautifully, but the story is anything but. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

bridrew's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Death, Excrement, Eating disorder, Child death, Animal death, Grief, Torture, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent and Pedophilia

maya7's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Excrement, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, and Animal death

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, and Suicidal thoughts

judythedreamer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Self harm, Vomit, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Grief, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Excrement, Incest, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Suicide, Violence, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

stockholmsara's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Rape, Torture, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Grief, and Gore

oftheolivetree's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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

1.0

The Discomfort of Evening touches on grief and the way families fall apart in a unique way. Jas, the main character, exemplifies how anxiety and obsessive tendencies develop following the experience of severe trauma, and how children often feel the need to be the glue that keeps their dying families together in the wake of tragedy. That being said, this book uses incredible violence, molestation, and incest, among other things, as shock value and excitement for readers who clearly have never experienced these things. Sexual abuse is romanticized heavily in this book and is described in heavy detail literally for no reason other than to shock the reader. Child molestation, incest, abuse, etc. adds nothing to the book and just feels like a perverse fantasy for creepy readers to get off to. It’s all discussed in such specific detail too. None of that needed to be in this book whatsoever, and it’s clear that this book is not for survivors in any way, especially with how the author writes children literally enjoying being molested. All of these things are in here just to be taboo. It is not a discussion of sexual trauma or violence in any regard. It romanticizes sexual violence and abuse. Don’t read this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Excrement, Incest, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Blood, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Torture

Don’t fucking read this, my god.

mokuren's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit