Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

12 reviews

brynalexa's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

2.75

Overall this novel was a breeze to get through; just enough diversity of prose and mystery to keep you turning the pages. I wished the idea that “power is bad no matter who has it” was more pervasive. It seemed like almost an afterthought or accidentally included. There was quite a bit of “cops are good and necessary” which was off-putting. You would hope the new world described wouldn’t include the violence of police. It felt a bit like the author threw in the notes from sensitivity readers all in the last 100 pages as an afterthought as well. Most of the characters had the same personality, even though it seems to be trying to be a feminist story. It came together in the end well. I would recommend it as an easy read if you aren’t hoping to take it too seriously. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Child death, Violence, Abandonment, Death of parent, Infertility, Death, Grief, Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, War, and Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Mass/school shootings, Deportation, Gun violence, Alcohol, Genocide, and Fatphobia

jishwathebig's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Infertility, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Suicide

alisafrancyne's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Infertility, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, and Grief

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.25

On the balance, I enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to read, compelling, and did a good job at illustrating the multiplicities of grief throughout the book. However, this does get repetitive, and the number of viewpoints was excessive, yet still managed to overwhelmingly be straight, white, and western. The world building wasn't as well fleshed out as similar speculative plague fiction such as World War Z and in parts rang hollow.

I was also disappointed at how straight the book was - the one lesbian character who doesn't enter into a relationship with a woman out of necessity is an arrogant sociopath, and the stories of women who fall in love with women after most men have died out are kept at a distance from the reader through news articles and interviews. None of our first person characters enter into a WLW relationship other than the aforementioned sociopath.

It also isn't until 354 pages into a 403 page book that the author spends a moment considering what traumatic impact the Plague would have had on the trans community, treating them like the afterthought that the sole trans character in the book ironically calls out the medical establishment for doing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Medical trauma, Violence, Grief, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Suicide, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Suicidal thoughts

leannanecdote's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Child death, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Grief, Medical content, War, and Ableism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Classism, Miscarriage, Racism, and Sexism

Minor: Transphobia, Trafficking, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Sexual assault

cheye13's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

2.0

It started off well, but lost me around halfway. Ultimately, I'm not sure what... the point... was... 

It's pitched as a feminist dystopia, but only mentions women taking over positions of power in the briefest asides. The real focus is the fallout of losing half the population. All of the recovery is focused on repopulation: protecting surviving men, birthing healthy boys, rationing sperm. Despite the female POVs, all the attention is once more on the men. Counterintuitively, it felt like the story coddled men while women buckled down to helm survival.

The most cohesive and developed theme was not women in positions of power, but fertility.

The book is tidily bookended by Catherine's fertility problems and eventual pregnancy.

All of the grief and fear we see in-depth is for husbands and sons – not fathers or brothers. Fertility stories are important, but this one felt incidental; it was the most coherent throughline, but didn't explore the topic in any meaningful way.

The specific careers (genetics, anthropology, government intelligence) spread the content of the novel too thin. With such intricate professions, there wasn't enough research to provide more than a superficial involvement in the novel's entire premise.

The identity diversity also felt like a hamfisted afterthought rather than a significant facet of the characters that would affect their approach to events. I appreciated the acknowledgement of the trans experience, but it felt extremely shoehorned, and again, not explored in any meaningful way. Sexuality and racial diversity wasn't handled any better, and there was nearly no class diversity.

The writing style was exceedinly readable, and the narrative was generally engaging. But ultimately, I sat down for a dissection of gender in the modern world, and instead got an exceedingly heteronormative narrative that in no way challenged the status quo, skirted gender essentialism, and was also kinda depressing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Child death, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Misogyny, Suicide, Transphobia, and War

the transphobia I mention isn't just that inherent in the premise; a trans character mentions how much more difficult life has been for trans people after "the plague," including an increase in general transphobia and transphobic violence

placebogirl's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Sexism and Infertility

Minor: Domestic abuse, Racism, Child death, and War

auteaandtales's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Racism, Gun violence, War, Cancer, Car accident, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Trafficking, and Transphobia

lpdx's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Ableism, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, and War

luelle_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I considered giving 4.5 but no, it deserves the 5. This book became relatable in a way the author could never have fully anticipated immediately on its release. I just wish there had been more focus on the LGBTQ community than there was - particularly trans women. But they did feature, thank goodness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Grief

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicide, and Murder