Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld

14 reviews

morenowagain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

I was very fascinated by the themes and characters in this book, but maybe due to the translation I found it hard to enjoy on a literary level. Far too many similes, things that needed more explanation and depth had none whereas things that were explored greatly seemed to have no purpose. I felt reading this that I was only scratching the surface of what was happening and I couldn't really get invested. Maybe the original Dutch is much better, who knows!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Death, Sexual content, Antisemitism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child abuse, Excrement, Gore, Incest, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts

inaczej's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Animal death, Sexual harassment, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Child abuse, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Vomit, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, and Rape

nilanilanila's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Sexual harassment, Incest, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Animal cruelty

floorw25's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Self harm, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Racism, Incest, Eating disorder, Death, Child death, Suicide, Grief, and Emotional abuse

erikwmj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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: Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Child abuse, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Abortion, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Body shaming, and Ableism

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.

meaghanelizabook's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder, Grief, Sexual content, Suicide, Death, Excrement, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Cursing, Incest, Toxic friendship, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

circesophelia's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

2.0

I think this book deserves a 50/50 rating, not because it is a soso book, but because of the polarising emotions I have towards it. 
The study of grief is excellent, and the demonstration of a young mind's decay into fear and uncertainty caused by an exposure to death is well done. 
The motif of the coat and Jas' baggage was incredibly well done, and I find the ending to be fitting for the story and I see little other conclusion. 
That being said, with some books as this, that try and push 'deeper and darker' I find as if they attempt to create the most dark and gruesome stories even when it makes little sense.

Obbe's incest, rape and pedophilia is not handled in a way that makes it woven into the narrative. It just creates squirming and horror at what is happening, goes unresolved and doesn't seem to fit with the fallout from Matthies' death to me that well. While I understand the implications of Jas' curiosity, many of the passages involving rape and incest seem jagged and unnecessarily dark just to remain in your head.

. While it may be a good book with incredible writing - what I have taken from it is not it's best features, just the shock horror value it attempts to reel you with, and that is a shame to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Child death, Incest, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

whatadutchgirlreads's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Excrement, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Suicide

ireri's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Violence, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, and Gore