Reviews with content warning for Rape - Stone Blind

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

356 reviews

meant2breading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

“I’m wondering if you still think of her as a monster. I suppose it depends on what you think that word means. Monsters are, what? Ugly? Terrifying? Gorgons are both these things, certainly, although Medusa wasn’t always. Can a monster be beautiful if it is still terrifying? Perhaps it depends on how you experience fear and judge beauty.”

“You aren’t monsters,’ Medusa said. ‘Neither are you. Who decides what is a monster?’ ‘I don’t know,’ said Medusa. ‘Men, I suppose.’ ‘So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our teeth, our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.”

This was my first major Greek Mythology read for me in many years. I don’t have a lot of background in Greek Mythology and I didn’t feel like I was missing context, though it may have helped. I enjoyed reading the multiple POVS and the short chapters! Love short chapter books!! The story also gives a glimpse into how Medusa faces sexual violence, misogyny, sexism, and dehumanization, among other oppressive realities in depicted Greek Life (I mean, not like we’re past that in society today…). For me though, this felt like more of a glimpse. I wish we would have had more of the story focus on Medusa herself and her perspective, but I appreciated the pacing, the ending, and I love some feminine rage. 💕

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oakotoks's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

karanextweek's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

1.5

As the saying goes, “if this book has 1,000 haters, I’m one. If this book has one hater, it’s me. If this book has zero haters, I’m dead.”
I haven’t had a negative visceral reaction to a book like this since I read Where the Crawdads Sing. For much different reasons, but my hate for both runs deep.
I hate the narrative voice (or should I say voices). And the constantly shifting POV. And the dozens of extremely unlovable, irritating characters. It made it so hard to invest in or care for any single character. It’s also marketed as a retelling of Medusa but she barely felt like a peripheral character?

Medusa’s death was boring, brief, and I hate that we just moved on.

This book was very much “insert trama>pursue revenge” and kinda casually skips past all the r*pe.
Also, what ever happened to the giants? What was the point of all that?
I know many of the characters are introduced to explain this one little thing that another character did that snowballed into a slightly larger part of the plot but good grief.
There were some clever parts and the writing (probably) isn’t bad! I just couldn’t get past my dislike to enjoy it. Not my style.

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bookreviewbyana's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Este livro é arrebatador e cruel... Fiquei com o coração destroçado pela Medusa!! Tenham atenção aos TW 😥

Content Warnings

onyxisalive's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

2.25

The writing of this book was okay - it is predominately written in third person (with the exception of some POV's); the different POV's do not have a distinct voice between them, because of this it makes it difficult to become attached to the characters as they don't feel real.
Due to the constantly changing POV's in this book it makes it near impossible to become attached to any of the characters. The exception being Medusa at the start, this happened for me due to the relationship with her sisters and her being in the story before the conception of her trauma. Most of the female characters are only added when their trauma happens this makes it much harder to grow attached to them and makes the events much less emotional.
Due to this wide scope of POV's the impact of the book is lessened as it means their is less time to develop each character, making some events not feel realistic, and making it difficult to connect with anyone.

The stone chapters

felt like a waste of time and I did not care about them at all.

In regards to Medusa, I really liked her at the start,

but her death did not hit hard at all. This was mostly because of the way it is told through her cut off head. Who has such a drastic personality change in such a short period of time and shows very little empathy I found her insufferable. I really hated the head chapters through the book. I did not like that the head was constantly yelling at the reader for things, which at some points in the story, we have very good reason to believe. It made her seem really insufferable and made it impossible for me to care about her; consequently, severely reducing the impact of her death.

In regards to the books message, it was interesting on the surface level, but it did not feel like the author dove deep enough into the various different aspects of it. The really horrible characters barely got any acknowledgement of wrong doing,

the book spends most of the time getting annoyed at Perseus - who we have no reason to be mad at until the end of the book (a character change, by the way that felt rushed and, as a result, completely unrealistic (even if it felt like it would make sense in theory)).

The really horrible characters are either treated humorously after their wrongdoings or like children. Instead of focusing on specific characters it instead focuses on the wrongdoings of many character and as a result many of the traumas feel either unrealistic or overshadowed by other plot points.

Other than Perseus,

the female characters themselves are actually some of the most petty and angry, with very few of them being likeable. Most of them have the same personality and are completely unlikeable.

It felt like the book focused too much on the rage of the females and their infighting instead of levying any hate the way of the Greek Gods - which could have been done in the head chapters which would have made the infighting between the females feel more like it had a point.

In regards to the positive, I really did like the sections at the beginning with Medusa and her sisters I really grew attached to them

(even if it was ruined later).

Also, the comedic sections of this book were really funny and did not feel like the messed with the serious tone of the book too much - I would definitely be interested in reading a less serious and more comedic book by this author.

All in all, it had potential, but I really wish the story had stayed more streamlined and centralised on one or two characters instead of 10 - I feel like it could have been really good if that was done as most of my issues with this book stem from this one issue.

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emilye's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

2.75

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sfryman96's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense 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

5.0

Content Warnings

redandread_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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celeste329's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

I was expecting for a little bit more from this book. Mainly, for it to be primarily from Medusa's perspective. But instead, we get a lot of plot lines that do not all converge and actually very little screen time from the titular character herself.

The whole book read as Medusa - as seen by others, and not all relevant in nature. I think I learnt more about Athene than Medusa in this whole book and I was left rather dissatisfied because of it.

There is this line towards Perseus: "And who are you to decide who is a monster?" - and it would have been SO great to have come from Medusa instead of Hermes, to have her challenge Perseus and his quest because really, at the end of the day, they are both two people who by all means should've had nothing to do with each other (and probably would have had nothing to do with each other were it not for some king's bruised ego).

There are a few good moments in the book - Medusa and her sisters' love for each other is something that was articulated very well. Athene's competitiveness was also well-highlighted. Perseus being characterised as an impulsive teen was also done quite well.

I would have expected some more rage from Medusa herself, but there is barely any from her (given that her chapters are also so rare). I got more rage from Hera and Athene, and even Euryale and Stenho.

Prose-wise, it was okay. Some very funny moments here and there and the descriptions were very well done - I could always picture the environment in my mind's eye. The Chapter structure was a little odd than what I am used to (being more accustomed to longer ones), so the action felt a bit all over the place sometimes. Also, there were a few chapters here and there that seemed to be 4th-wall-breaker types - as much as I appreciated the messages in the book, these chapters did not help with my immersion, taking me straight out of the book.

Overall, it was an ok book. I had high hopes for the titulary character and interactions with the themes presented in the blurb, but sadly, this wasn't quite delivered on.

Content Warnings

garnethalo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I'll never look at Perseus the same. With the switching veiwpoints, I understood Medusa, the gods, and Perseus better. And I definitely have favorites. A wonderful, captivating read.

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