Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips

19 reviews

starstuff's review

2.0

At a sentence by sentence level, reading this felt like treading through deep mud. The writing is so muddled and pretentious, I found myself pulled out of story because of constant eye-rolling… 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

booksforrachel's review

reflective tense

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

horationelson's review against another edition

• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: War, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Slavery and Pregnancy

gipsns's review

challenging tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Death, Child abuse, Gore, Animal death, and Physical abuse

deedireads's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Night Watch was longlisted for the National Book Award this year, which is what placed it on my TBR. The premise and the cover both held so much potential for me, but unfortunately, this book was just not my cup of tea.

As other reviewers have said before me, there are parts of this book depicting sexual violence that are very hard to read. In fact, it’s what drives our main character’s mother into her current mute, zombie-like state, which is how they end up in the novel’s main setting, a (historically real in the 1800s) psychiatric hospital. I did think that the research that went into this novel was really well done, and it was interesting reading a novel in a setting like that. Plus, the prose was good and I could see the potential of a strong ending to make the reading experience feel worth it, so I kept going. Unfortunately, that ending never materialized; in fact, I’m sorry to say that the ending totally sucked for me.

So all in all, while I can see its merits, this isn’t a book I’d likely recommend.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, and Death

amisk23's review against another edition

informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

lola1229's review against another edition

DNF.  31% in, and Papa has already raped her at least twice; with another near-rape that Papa “saved” her from.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

ex_hardesty's review

Graphic multi-page description of rape. Did not love the writing style. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, War, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Sexual violence

abookishtype's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.0

There are a lot of secrets in Jayne Anne Phillips’s haunting novel, Night Watch. They slowly unspool over the course of 300 pages in a way that made me feel like I almost couldn’t bear to hear another, while at the same time drawing me along until every bit of plot had been wrung out of the characters. But then, set against the turmoil and trauma of the American Civil War, I suppose it’s not surprising to see what the small family at the heart of this novel has to bear...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape