Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld

95 reviews

erikwmj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Child abuse, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Abortion, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Body shaming, and Ableism

phoebewerling's review against another edition

very weird, i didn’t like. i stopped reading halfway through. a lot of the themes and subjects of the book made me uncomfortable, especially when </Hana and Jas were kissing (they’re sisters….), Obe showing his sister his dick and cUM JAR??????? and the descriptive scenes of how Jas was wanking off a boy 5 years younger than her (she’s about 12-14 i think) and shit like that.> there was barely any focus on </Matthies’ death> so far and i’m already halfway through the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest and Grief

bumble_abi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The time I spent reading this kept flipping between underwhelm and admiration - completely unlike anything I've read before and increasingly unhinged (but that's the point, right?). Not a huge amount actually happens but I kept reading because the tone is one of suspension, emotion unresolved, and I had to know where it landed. Fortunately it DID land somewhere (I did wonder if Rijneveld was going to leave us hanging there, it would have been a valid artistic choice imo) and when it did it totally winded me. A deeply uncomfortable novel punctuated by moments of brilliant sunlight, wildly sad and grotesque and somehow shining for it all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Animal cruelty, Child death, Body horror, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicide

judythedreamer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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: Animal death, Bullying, Self harm, Vomit, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Grief, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Excrement, Incest, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Suicide, Violence, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

ficteon's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

3.0

A very, very uncomfortable read. The grossest book I've ever read. Though I think I'm excusing a lot of the gross behavior in it as it's spookymonth and I'm reading it as a horror Halloween book, but it's gross. If I read this in March I'd probably hate it. 
Still it made me keep reading to find out what happens to the child mc. I also get why it was gross in someway, as it is meant to be uncomfortable and traumatic, and it's about what grief does to you if you handle it the wrong way. Though.. why would you ever want your name to be on this book? I wonder why she wrote this. 

It was still interesting, but for it's contents I don't think I can give it higher than a 3, but also not lower as the story did make me invested, and it was a horror read as said before. If you plan on reading this, do it now and not in other months. Or if you love gross books, go ahead, this one is really gross.

Though the Dutch culture, and Christian Dutch culture was fun to read throughout this book as someone who comes from that culture. Lot of recognizable things mostly from my siblings memories. I think my brother is born the same year as the MC. I would've been born around the time of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Grief, and Incest

Moderate: Pedophilia, Cursing, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood

sndrspk's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Abandonment, and Sexual content

jytteanne's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Violence, Vomit, Abortion, Excrement, Grief, and Self harm

stockholmsara's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Rape, Torture, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Grief, and Gore

etty_m's review

Too disturbing. Themes of self harm, child abuse and other horrors becoming increasingly darker. It’s a well written book and compelling concept, I just don’t have the stomach for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Excrement, Self harm, Child abuse, Animal death, Death, Grief, Eating disorder, and Injury/Injury detail

oftheolivetree's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

The Discomfort of Evening touches on grief and the way families fall apart in a unique way. Jas, the main character, exemplifies how anxiety and obsessive tendencies develop following the experience of severe trauma, and how children often feel the need to be the glue that keeps their dying families together in the wake of tragedy. That being said, this book uses incredible violence, molestation, and incest, among other things, as shock value and excitement for readers who clearly have never experienced these things. Sexual abuse is romanticized heavily in this book and is described in heavy detail literally for no reason other than to shock the reader. Child molestation, incest, abuse, etc. adds nothing to the book and just feels like a perverse fantasy for creepy readers to get off to. It’s all discussed in such specific detail too. None of that needed to be in this book whatsoever, and it’s clear that this book is not for survivors in any way, especially with how the author writes children literally enjoying being molested. All of these things are in here just to be taboo. It is not a discussion of sexual trauma or violence in any regard. It romanticizes sexual violence and abuse. Don’t read this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Excrement, Incest, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Blood, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Torture

Don’t fucking read this, my god.