Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

22 reviews

thatswhatkatread's review against another edition

I really struggled with content of this book (tw: graphic descriptions of rape, incest, and child marriage) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual violence, and Rape

rae_diant's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Infertility

Moderate: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Ableism, and Gore

Minor: Homophobia

ultimatecryptid's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

2.75

Adored the prose, I thought it flowed really beautifully.

LOTS of interesting ideas that I feel were under explored, but also a lot of ideas I feel could have been explored less. As I was reading I remember hitting the last third of the book and thinking "Oh so HERE it picks up", but could not convince myself that the prior 600 pages were necessary to get there. 

Hoping to read more fantasy of the era for comparison purposes explicitly because of this book. I've definately enjoyed thinking about it more than reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Rape, and Sexual assault

jessthanthree's review against another edition

reflective 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest and Rape

Moderate: Child death, War, Violence, Infidelity, Ableism, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Homophobia

sarah_writes's review

slow-paced

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

1.0

This book has been recommended to me again and again and again. The truth about the author is well known, and it only takes a quick google search to find out the truth. However, since it has been recommended to me so often, and I was assured that there was very little in the book to suggest that the author was anything other than perfectly normal, I decided to read it anyway. That was a mistake, I found The Mists of Avalon to be a deeply nauseating read and I deeply regret picking it up. I actually gave up after about 500 pages, after two rape scenes occurred in a relatively short space of time. I understand that this is still a very important book to a lot of people, particularly those who read it before the truth about MZB was revealed. Reading it today with the prior knowledge of the author's sickening crimes makes it difficult to appreciate the novel as the original Arthurian inspired feminist fantasy. This novel is full of incest and rape, described quite explicitly.  I believe that MZB used her version of paganism to justify her own sick way of thinking, and it saddens me to think that someone would use any religion in this way. The debates between Christianity and paganism were interesting at times, but most of the time it felt like the author was just continuously bashing Christianity. Gwenhwyfar is the most religious of the Christian characters, and she was often used as an example of how repressed the Christians are in the novel. Archbishop Patricius is apparently supposed to be an example of Saint Patrick, but in reality although Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland he was much more liberal than the character described in this book. There is also a lot of talk in this novel about virginity, as well as fertility, sometimes to the point where it felt a bit obsessive. The 'feminist' aspect of this book was completely lost on me. There were few female characters in this book with bodily autonomy. There was also very little sisterhood. Characters who are friends for a few chapters begin to hate each other soon after when they're getting too much male attention. On a less disturbing level, I did not like the writing style of this book. It felt overly long and drawn out. The way that the characters speak felt unrealistic and over-complicated, for the sake of sounding old-timey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Incest, Infertility, and Pedophilia

sonder11's review against another edition

1.0

one of those books that looooves putting people/children in rape situations and justifying it because “ooh it was medieval times”. look up the author. im serious. just put her name in on wikipedia 
(trigger warning for real)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

morganrie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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: Abandonment, Ableism, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

decembermagpie's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective slow-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Incest, Infertility, and Infidelity

rachel_here's review

adventurous dark reflective 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? Yes

Although I remember having liked it a lot as a teenager (I loved the grand scope, watching the characters grow up and grow old, exploring multiple point of views and relationships); it still has a lot of elements that, looking back, were pretty bad. I've never picked up the following books despite owning them, and knowing who the author was as a person turned me off this series completely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Rape, and Incest

clyoung's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape