Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

15 reviews

ashleycmms's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Child abuse

Moderate: Incest, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

Minor: Infidelity and Murder

greenisthecolorofkale's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

this is the first memoir i've read in a while. i tend to read queer, emotional fiction and sometimes fantasy, but i almost never read nonfiction. fun fact, i used to detest it as a kid. i would have these books called "who was...?" with terrifyingly realistic bobble head paintings of the person the biography was about. my mom made me read one each day and i hated them with a burning passion.

needless to say, i've dragged myself back into reading the occasional memoir and i have to say, this book was an experience. it follows the author's life, jeannette walls, where it takes everything to get through life with an abusive alcoholic father and an absent mother who cared more about painting materials than putting food on the table. 

i wasn't really sure how many stars to rate this, because i couldn't rate it based off the plot or character development. that was what really threw me reading this book, actually, that it didn't have a steady plotline throughout the book. it took me a while to get through it. 

but holy shit, i am so glad i did because it is stunningly beautiful. walls recounts her life from an extremely young age of four (or three? i forget lol) up to her current experiences, and at times, i forgot that it was an autobiography. 

jeannette walls weaves exquisite language in along with cold, hard events she struggled through and sucks you in with bone chilling detail. her story will make you feel emotions you never knew existed with your whole being.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexism

orlagal's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Toxic relationship

wardenred's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

"Don't be sad, Mom. I'll write."
"I'm not upset because I'll miss you," Mom said. "I'm upset because you get to go to New York and I'm stuck here. It's not fair." 

This memoir was completely engrossing and unputdownable—more than once, I felt compelled to put aside everything else in favor of reading it. It left me with a lot of emotion and a lot of puzzlement and honestly, the author's parents are just bizarre. 

This is very firmly a family story. It can even be said that it's a story of endless optimism and unconditional love and free-spirited parents teaching their kids to see every problem or trouble life throws at them as an adventure. Except it's not the abstract, esoteric life that subjects these kids to problems and troubles. Pretty much every bit of pain they face—from a beloved pet thrown out of the car window, to being stuck for 14+ hours in the darkness forbidden to talk, to sinking repeatedly during impromptu swimming lessons, to being put on the verge of getting sexually assaulted, to all the problems that come with living in extreme poverty—all of it is of their parents' making.

Reading about this dysfunctional dynamic was fascinating, the same way particularly inventive horror movies can be fascinating. I guess I... have a lot of inspiration for creating lovable villains now?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

alomie's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

The story of a hard childhood.
This book took me a few evenings to read and I could not put it down. 
It was shocking and sad but also a story of hope that no matter how bad things are you can get out and you can change the cycle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, Self harm, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Grief, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, and Addiction