Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

29 reviews

maddieemp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

evilyreading's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved everything except Bruh Abel. I'm not sure how much of it was intentional, but he felt more like a plot device than a character. I loved the time slipping and it was very easy to visualize. I'm surprised it hasn't been made into a movie yet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Sexual assault

Moderate: Rape

annosuperstar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Sexual assault, and War

skylar_disobeys's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual assault

sincerelykiwi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

2.0

I thought there would be more magical realism but there wasn’t. I feel mislead by the synopsis.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

sbookreader's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Grief, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, War, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Bullying, Hate crime, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

lolasherwin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Abortion, and Slavery

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

book_cave_ghost_girl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

Unforgettable deep dive into the immense cruelty and dehumanization of chattel slavery and the complex relationships of the characters with each other when it comes to love and power-- will make you feel your feelings!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Slavery, Sexism, Murder, Death of parent, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Grief, Emotional abuse, Child death, Racism, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Gore, Blood, Violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Sexism, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcoholism, Murder, War, Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Child death

birdomens's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is beautiful. It’s painted so well with a mix of magic and reality. Afia follows tangled roots of stories in a way that both acknowledges their complexity and keeps connections and plot clear to follow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Hate crime, Torture, Trafficking, Body horror, Confinement, Abortion, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Alcohol, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, War, Blood, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Vomit, Violence, Child abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

paulineerika's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This one is a hard one for me to rate. I had originally started reading it from the library months ago, but couldn't really get into it, so I ended up returning it. I later bought it so that I would have more time to read it and ended up finishing it in a relatively short amount of time.

I've seen some other reviews criticize the plot of this book as being too meandering or drifting and I can see that. I think the summary provided is misleading: this isn't a clear story about three women and their lives throughout the end of the Civil War. In fact, I wouldn't really call it a story about three women at all. If anything, it's Rue's story, but it's really more about the community in the aftermath of the Civil War. I think one reviewer had it right: the story felt like a mood, not a plot. It's not one that's easily defined or even described. 

Atakora's writing is wonderful and I enjoyed it, but the book itself was not as enjoyable, if that makes sense. I was stressed a lot when reading it, waiting for the worst to happen. And while the axe never quite falls, there is a lot of tragedy and trauma that the characters experience almost casually, like it's just a regular part of life, which is heartbreaking. (Of course, given the setting of the story, I guess that's not so surprising.) The ending is tentatively happy, but not completely satisfying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault