Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp

6 reviews

mattyvreads's review

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dark emotional tense 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

2.75

This was a really interesting read. 

It was giving POV relationship abuse, which was sometimes tough, and often (intentionally) uncomfortable.


The most successful element of the book was the visceral nature of the storytelling. Crimp makes the reader feel everything that is happening in the protagonist’s body, which evokes joy, pain, sadness, horror, unease, anxiety, excitement, delight, and more. It is a unique experience.

The book offers some subtle and other times obvious feminist messaging, but it never feels painfully on-the-nose. It is overt when it needs to be. It is straightforward and thought-provoking.
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sydneybedell's review

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emotional sad 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

3.0

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onestephatatime's review

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dark emotional 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

4.5

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teddylouise00's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

3.0

I almost DNF’ed this so many times. It dragged and dragged until about the last 50 pages, which isn’t what you want. It’s a fine debut. The similes got convoluted and the long passages of Nothing got boring pretty quickly. The ending did keep my attention though, Anna’s mind as everything is moving on from this one emotionally draining point in her life is interesting and therapeutic. I’m afraid the era of Sally Rooney type narratives may already be reaching its end (only the knock offs though, Ms Rooney is doing just fine!!)
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crossyc's review

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dark 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

1.5

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nanobooks's review

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Immediate thoughts: I think we often aggrandize bad people as true villains when... they're just bad people? I don't know what to make of the ending.

Review This was a difficult read. Anna is a mid-twenties opera postgrad in London on an opera scholarship. One day, she meets a late-thirties man and he gaslights her. Hard. Repeatedly. But sometimes he's nice. Sometimes he's so tender, so sensitive, that it's hard to see the other side.
It's hard to say that the character of Anna has development instead of just resolving the problem that this man creates. I don't know if we're supposed to feel gaslit by the end but I definitely did.

This said, I could not stop reading and, even though I was not looking forward to reading about opera, I thought the author did a great job making it interesting and connecting the feeling behind the operas to Anna's life.

Thanks to Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC! 
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