Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

A Very Private School by Charles Spencer

5 reviews

creativerunnings's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Classism, Self harm, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Bullying, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Grief, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

knkoch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

4.25

It's been a little while now since I finished this, but it keeps cropping up in my conversations. I had no idea before reading an article about this book's release that Charles Spencer was a historian; I merely recognized him as Princess Diana's brother. I was impressed by his writing style and they way he handled this sensitive, emotional material. He blended his own experience deftly with a considerable amount of research and a great breadth of interviews he conducted with peers and alumni from Maidwell school. This never felt like it was solely Spencer's story, but rather a consolidation of voices of several generations of men still suffering in various ways from the harm inflicted on them decades ago as children. (He decides early on to focus only on all-male boarding schools, which seems fair as far as scope seeing as that was his direct experience.)

Spencer really picked at a delicate paradox here, both acknowledging he and his peers' considerable class privilege and marveling at the entrenched English tradition of severe boarding school education, perhaps meant to "harden" those privileged children. The very families that could afford to educate their children any way they wished often chose to send them into the hands of 'educators' and staff they knew virtually nothing about, a situation primed for appalling abuse and subsequent cover-ups. Spencer tells his own story quite honestly, providing an account of his childhood understanding of events leavened with his now-adult perspective, which took many years and considerable therapy to reach. He's quite vulnerable throughout this account, without ever seeming self-pitying or arrogant. Though he does eviscerate the adults who failed him and his peers: staff, both teachers and administration, both abusers and knowing bystanders, all of whom could have tried to intervene. That seemed quite fair on his part. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Bullying

srm's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A moving memoir with additional indictment of the world of boarding schools. Excellently written, painful, and engaging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Bullying, and Child abuse

caz33176's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.75

Well written. The subject matter is disturbing and the reader can’t help but feel incensed on behalf of the many young boys who are abused both physically and sexually at this awful institution.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Abandonment and Vomit

Minor: Self harm

ilikemandos's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

I think it would be in poor taste to give this recollection a star rating. I will only say that if you want to learn about the dynamics which lead to the abuse of minors and their sadly common silence, this is a good resource. Parents/guardians/educators/etc may also have a particular interest in what Charles Spencer tells us.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Rape, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Grief, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Eating disorder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Sexual content, and Emotional abuse