Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

10 reviews

jlink17's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Incest, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Rape, Child death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Infertility

jlpearce06's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

What a horrible and well written book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Violence, Physical abuse, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Drug use, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Grief, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

rafacolog's review

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

Esse não tem desculpa de ser para crianças 

Nota 1/5= ler foi uma tortura 

Leitura= 10/2017 

A escrita é entediante, a trama é lenta e sem sal, tudo pareceu extremamente forçado para ser “adulto”. Não é uma questão de puritanismo, mas é tanto palavrão e insinuações sexuais que fica sem sentido e não parecem conversas reais. 

Os personagens são desagradáveis, não sei se eram para ser “pessoas reais com defeitos e blablabla”, mas independente disso não consegui me importar com nenhum deles. Tem algumas questões sérias que são tratadas sem cuidado ou sem nenhuma profundidade, e a meu ver a única mensagem que esse livro pode carregar é que as pessoas são podres e lutar contra isso é inútil (o que é ridículo). 

Isso tudo sem nem entrar no mérito que a autora é transfóbica com orgulho e já teve diversas acusações de racismo e antissemitismo. Ela não merece seu dinheiro por razão nenhuma, tanto por ser uma pessoa horrível quanto por sua escrita ser patética. 

Me arrependo de ter consumido tanta coisa que veio dela na adolescência, mas nunca é tarde para se corrigir então pelo menos vou dar minha opinião honesta sobre os trabalhos dela e lembrar a todos que só da para separar obra do autor quando essa pessoa já não pode mais usar sua popularidade e ganhos para contribuir com discurso preconceituoso. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Cursing, Alcoholism, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Suicide, and Transphobia

goug220517's review

emotional mysterious fast-paced

3.5

Once you learn who all the town people are, its a great flow of the story line between characters. Different and unique perspective of small town drama. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, and Self harm

housedesignerking's review

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

1.0

From the death of a character described in nearly graphic detail to the inclusion of curse words, cringe-worthy sex and drug use, I was both shocked and disappointed by this.... This is a completely different style of writing despite still being signature Rowling. It's got topics within that were never a Harry Potter book, so it;'s a bit eye-widening, if you will, coming from this particular author. There are adult, yet still juvenile descriptions and situations within the book. It left me thinking: Wow. I can't believe she wrote this. I guess I'm thinking that this book is both complex and yet positively simply when you come to the last page. It's definitely.... something coming from a woman that has spent most of her career writing about a magical world.

This book took me a month to read because it was very bad. I loved hating Gavin but that's about the only good thing I can say about this book.... I did not enjoy this at all. 1 out of 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Cursing

cstein's review

dark funny informative lighthearted 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

4.25

A convincing depiction of small-town England, with highly defined, memorable characters and a unique central conflict. Somewhat difficult to keep character names and relationships straight at first. Rowling's writing tends toward superficiality/cheesiness during serious scenes and gratuitous misery/vulgarity in all others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Blood, Classism, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Gaslighting, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, and Racial slurs

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Homophobia, and Incest

lynnaeday's review against another edition

dark sad medium-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

2.5

The overarching feeling I had from this book was “she’s trying too hard.” Knowing it was Rowling’s first novel for adults, it felt like she was trying to prove that she can write about grown-up topics, not just kid stuff. But the entire book was an assault of grief, hardship, every kind of abuse, and all of the ways we hurt each other when we’re hurting. The only redeeming thing about it was one character learning to stand up for themselves (and that was only one plot line of many). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Suicide, Self harm, Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Classism, Lesbophobia, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, and Abandonment

Not worth the 6-8 hours to read it.

acornell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Child death, Drug use, and Mental illness

redwrapped's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

It was exceptionally slow and confusing for the first 200 pages or so, usually a dealbreaker, but as I went on, I grew more intrigued by the intersecting characters and how someone affects other people accidentally. The last 150 pages truly redeems the length of this, even though it is a bit bloated and overlong. 

I'm not sure I learned anything besides that middle-aged council members all pretty much hate each other and are trifling troublemakers. That, and JK Rowling put pretty much any triggering topic that there is into this book, so beware of the content, particularly of detailed passages of domestic/physical abuse and heroin addiction, and a rape scene.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia

nixieba25f's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

A review of JK Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy"
Alternate title: "No Seriously Guys, This is Totally Not Harry Potter"

If you don't wish to read the entire review, please just read the last paragraph.

I'm not disappointed that Rowling went in a different direction with this book; I'm disappointed that that was the entire focus of the book. She thought up the most mundane town full of Dursleys, Filches, and Peeveses with petty and vulgar problems as she could and went "No magic: check. Absolutely no likeable or relatable characters: check. Exccessive swearing and other vulgarities: check. I've done it! Not Harry Potter."

It was honestly very hard to read because I wanted to punch all of the characters in the teeth and couldn't care less about any of their problems. If you want a taste of what I'm talking about, here's a list of character comparisons as a familiar reference point for how horrible these people are.

Barry Fairbrother (his death is the crux of the book) - Dumbledore, but not awesome. good, but the sucky people hate him
Mary Fairbrother (Barry's widow) - Moaning Myrtle
Howard Mollison (big jolly fat bad guy) - Slughorn, but 1000x more malicious
Shirley Mollison (uber-judgmental biotch, Howard's wife) - Petunia Dursley
Miles Mollison (H&S's son) - Filch
Samantha Mollison (Miles' wife) - Lavender Brown
Terri Weedon (heroine-addict ho) - a stoned banshee
Krystal Weedon (Terri's daughter) - Pansy Parksinson
Colin 'Cubby' Wall - Hagrid, only a pedophile (in his head at least), and with anger issues
Tessa Wall (Cubby's wife) - Professor Sprout, but with more secrets
Fats Wall (C&T's adopted son) - Draco Malfoy
Simon Price - Vernon Dursley, but with more fisticuffs and illicit activities
Ruth Price (Simon's wife) - Trelawney
Andrew Price (S&R's son) - Ron Weasley, only more awful
Gavin Hughes - Professor Quirrel
Kay Bawden (Gavin's clingy lover) - Madam Pomfrey
Gaia Bawden (Kay's daughter, Andrew's love interest) - Fleur
Dr. Parminder Jawanda - McGonagall, but without everything good about McGonagall
Sukhvinder Jawanda (P's daughter) - Hermione, but stuck in her moody days and not smart at all

I think the part that bothered me the most about the book was Rowling's insulting misunderstanding of the condition of OCD. In the book, Cubby Walls is said to suffer from it, causing him to have vivid hallucinations of doing things like molesting children or poisoning someone, to the point where he is unable to separate these visions from reality. Paranoid delusions, to my knowledge, are more a symptom of schizophrenia than of OCD, and he appears to exhibit no other medical symptoms to justify his diagnosis. He does have an obsession with the cubby holes outside his office, but it is explained that this is so his hands are always busy and unable to fiddle with any children. So, it's less compulsive than it is a conscious choice he makes. I think people who are unfamiliar with the condition in real life may take Rowling's depiction as realistic, since, you know, we expect authors to research these things before they right them, and create a stigma toward people suffering from OCD (who honestly have it bad enough as it is.) 

After reading more on the subject, I've found that there are 'abnormal' cases of OCD that exhibit similar symptoms, but if that is the case Rowling was trying to go for, she should have made it clear. There was no distinction from the characters that Cubby's OCD was presenting as anything other than the norm. Furthermore, he still lacks the 'ritual' behavior that is crucial to OCD.

Lastly, I was bothered by the excessive bad language and adult situations and themes in the book. I realize her target audience for this is an adult one, and that she had clearly stated that before publishing it, but even considering that, it all seems too much. Even considering the characters and situations she was writing, much of the more "adult" aspects of the book (both language and situational) felt very jarring and out of place. Additionally, I think some younger HP readers might be excited to move on to Rowling's newest work and ask it of their parents without looking into it first. Now, I know some parents do exhaustive research on everything they buy for their children, but some children are avid readers (like me) their parents (like mine) don't bother to look into every one they ask for or even read the dust jacket, and some oblivious parents trust that someone who has written ten delightful children's books would go on to write more; so this book may have made it into the hands of young'uns for whom it, frankly, is just not appropriate. It is gritty; it is petty; it is vulgar; it can even be scarring at times. So if you know any parents who are thinking about gifting it to their children, let them know what they're getting into, or at least advise them to read it themselves first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia