Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

9 reviews

chriswoody94's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Sexism, and Antisemitism

dwager's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

This book is early Dickens, and wanders a bit in terms of the story line. It is a dark and melodramatic look at the underworld of Victorian England,  much darker than any adaptation I've seen. The characters are archetypes of criminals, innocent child, benevolent grandfather, etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Physical abuse, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, and Deportation

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child abuse, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Ableism

Minor: Racial slurs

dannilmp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-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? No

3.5

For my first venture into reading Dickens as an adult, I was not disappointed. Actually I am glad I have very vague or no memories of the various film adaptations (aside from Oliver and Company) so that I could read this novel with fresh eyes to the story. 

Firstly, I expected to struggle with understanding the type of language used and the way sentences are strung together in classic literature but I was pleasantly suprised when I found I was flying through the pages, only having to go back and re-read passages a few times. The addition of footnotes at the end of the book was very helpful as well. I enjoyed watching Oliver grow throughout his trials and tribulations and the occasional illustrated scene in this edition was a lovely touch. I felt the way each character's story wrapped up was the highlight of this book for me and certainly the ending has stuck with me. 

On the other hand, this edition had a section for noting changes between various editions of the novel as it was released but it was not easy to notice this while I was reading, it was something I stumbled across as I was looking for footnotes for other explanations. Additionally, it was quite a chore to keep having to flick to the back of the book every time a footnote appeared, I do prefer footnotes written at the bottom of pages but I feel this was a small price to pay for easier understanding of the novel's concepts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Kidnapping and Violence

Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

julianh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Kidnapping

hoarde_of_words's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Antisemitism, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Violence and Murder

lachrymoseleech's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

It was a bit boring a times. My favourite parts were near the end when

after Sikes kills Nancy and everything starts going downwards for him and the other thieves. Also when Oliver visited a manic Fagin in jail

If abuse is a sensitive topic for you, you probably shouldn't read it, there's a lot of it.
Other than that, it's a good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent

slowen719's review against another edition

adventurous sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

jersy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

 This book manages to be written in a funny, sarcastic and witty way while also being absolutely devastating. Oliver has to endure so much, and while he seems to be the least interesting and fleshed out character in the book, it is so easy to sympathize with him. I must admit I liked the little side stories and the mystery more than the actual plot since it was just frustrating to see a child suffer that much and lose every positive thing he earns, however the whole book is really engaging due to its prose and the enjoyable side characters. I love Dickens` writing style and should stop being so intimidated by his works. 

He wrote a very touching example of how poor people, and especially more vulnerable ones like children, were treated horribly and how most citizens that were better off didn’t even notice and expected gratitude for their ill-treatment. While where I live poverty to that extreme extend does not have to exist anymore, I can totally see parallels to how some people view the unemployed and refugees nowadays. Still a very worthwhile read but more brutal than one would expect from its adaptations and general knowledge about this book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Death

Minor: Toxic relationship