Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Corrupt by Penelope Douglas

51 reviews

anastashamarie's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

3.5/5 (TWs listed at the end, plz read)

If you take the 2006 film The Covenant, remove the magic, flesh out the plot a little more, and add smut...that's what this book is. An untouchable group of mischief-causing, incredibly attractive bad boys who enthrall everyone with their mystique. Old money posturing and politicking that leads to a revenge plot that uses the sweet blonde FMC as a pawn. Dramatic confrontation scenes that could have been resolved with a much-less-attractive, logical conversation. Some unexpectedly homoerotic tension that I don't think was intentional. The vibes are identical between the two.

And those vibes are immaculate for the first 2/3 of the book. But around 67.5%, this takes a weird atmospheric turn that I didn't vibe with as strongly. Idk how to explain it, but the storyline just didn't carry the same oomph after the 67% mark (the spicy scenes still did for sure, but I'm talking specifically about the actual storyline). It went from this hot push and pull between Rika and the whole Horseman group, to a different dynamic that I didn't enjoy nearly as much.

Also as much as I enjoyed the Rika and Michael circling each other, I really just felt bad for her the whole book because everyone around her objectively sucks. This girl deserves better than the thousand red flags surrounding her entire social circle. I hope she finds a genuine friend eventually or that at least the ones she does have treat her better.

But this was greatly enjoyable as a guilty pleasure read. I see why people like Penelope Douglas if this one was any indication, and I am going to read the next one for sure.

⚠️ TWs: lots of sexually explicit scenes, sexual assault/harassment, violence, murder, arson, gaslighting, manipulation, bullying, alcohol use, death of a parent, death of a dog (side note: wtf did this need to be in here for?)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Sexual assault, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Car accident

A dog dies in the last chapter; I feel like you can just totally skip that chapter and feel like things are neatly concluded.

assesgrass's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Stalking, Bullying, Death of parent, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault

becflourish's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Stalking, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Cursing, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Car accident, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

thyapollo's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, Rape, and Sexism

dkdjsjdjsjssjjs's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Bullying, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Stalking, Murder, and Death of parent

al4ssandra's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

quietmarki's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Misogyny, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Animal death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Classism, Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

moonlina's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

0.25

It troubles me how the autor overlooks rape in this book and make its sexy. (especially how rika gives a fnck abt it)if its your kink go off dude but for me it was trauma triggering (wich is my fault) so be careful <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Stalking and Kidnapping

It troubles me how the autor overlooks rape in this book and make its sexy. if its your kink go off dude but for me it was trauma triggering (wich is my fault) so be careful <3

jen1804's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

This book is an absolute rollercoaster. I read it within 24 hours because it just got me totally hooked. This is a very dark and twisted romance with a lot of dark and twisted sexual content thrown in. Alongside that is a really interesting and mysterious narrative with P Douglas flitting between the present day and the past, keeping the reader engaged and wanting to find out more about what happened three years go. Despite how fucked up the characters are in this book, I actually really dig them? I love that I can get lost in this dark fantastical story which is full of the type of guys I’ve been taught from a young age to avoid, all from the the safe confines of my own reading space. I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series and exploring the rest of the four horsemen’s stories.
Drops points because some of that shit I read was disturbing and also because of the high number of spelling/grammatical errors! Penelope, get a new editor girl.
Satisfactory ending? Yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Rape, and Animal death

livilu's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

I just… it’s a very cis-white-rich-straigth-book. HUGE y/n main character with a harem, not a good harem though. The 🌶 is cool, al least we know that they where okey with what was going on. 
All the warnings that i mentioned where just there and no one actually talked about them, seriously. Wouldn’t  recommend unless you want what i just said. 
ALSO, for the love of god the amount of toxicity holy molly. I still don’t know how the book ended the way it did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, and Toxic relationship