Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung by Nina MacLaughlin

37 reviews

pattington's review

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I really was excited for this book at tried to enjoy it. Unfortunately every story is woefully similar and though they’re twisting existing myths, the tales twist all of them in the same way, which just gets so boring. The writing was beyond underwhelming and still trying too hard.  A different review called it “pseudo-deep in the way bad poetry is” and I think that perfectly captures it. Also, the writing relies on existing myths and the visceral assault of the female body over and over again in order to provide anything compelling, which is just lazy. This is trauma porn masquerading as feminist literature. There is an attempt to differentiate between the women being described in each story, but the writing skills necessary to accomplish multiple of such visions were missing, and each vignette came across bland and undeveloped with virtually the same conclusion for each character of ‘I grit my teeth and endure suffering’. 

 For some it may be cathartic, but for me it was exhausting. Maybe it would’ve gotten better if I read all the way through, but the first several stories were just so disappointing. 
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andybeagle333's review

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Very graphic and violent descriptions of sexual assault, couldn't stomach it. This book is trying to be revolutionary and feminist but it isn't accessible to almost anyone who has experienced the issues the author is trying to shed light on because her descriptions of r*pe are very frequent and very graphic. Also, an unfortunate takeaway from so many of these stories is that women get power from their trauma
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georgiatancred's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

4.75

This collection of short stories focuses on the many women who were involved in ancient Roman mythology. Most were mistreated and poorly depicted, so expect to be enraged and depressed as you read a proper interpretation of their stories. This is disgustingly honest, and I love it because I hated how it made me feel about society.
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heathervg97's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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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cypress_the_tree's review

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didn't realize that this would be a collection of short stories just depicting rape
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mmccombs's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

2.0

I’m really disappointed in this one, it had all of the makings of a book I’d love. Some stories were great, but mostly it was repetitive and overwrought. All of the voices were basically the same, so it never felt like we were hearing from a cast of characters. I saw a reviewer describe this as “100 rape vignettes” and I think that’s accurate. And it was just so graphic, which I think makes it look “deep” or “meaningful” or “important” but just renders it traumatic for no real reason at all. I don’t think this was feminist and it is a cis, white perspective on gendered violence through and through. There’s a kernel of something here but I mostly just think it should have been at least half as long and much more selective in what stories to tell.
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courtneyfalling's review

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dark emotional tense fast-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? No

3.0

Dark feminist retellings of the myths in Ovid's Metamorphoses? Conceptually I'm so here. But this collection was... heavy and very viscerally in the characters' voices and experiences. I have to wonder who the intended audience is because people who pick up feminist Ovid retellings probably already agree that these stories are about gendered violence and likely have experienced gendered violence themselves, but this collection feels very sharp and potentially retraumatizing to that exact set of people. Not all the time, and not in an intentionally dangerous way, but still... this was pretty hard to get through at points and I had to wonder to what end. 

Edit a few weeks later: the more I think about it, the more that the equation of sexual violence and vulnerability to cis womanhood in this book feels gender essentialist and slipping into TERFdom...
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reallyemily's review

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

Wow the writing in this book is absolutely incredible. Even when I didn’t love the story being told, I loved the way that each story had a different voice and each woman had different motivations and wants and desires that could be seen through the writing. Loved. 
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theinvulnerabletide's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

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lttlemzsmok2mchweeeeed's review

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dark sad medium-paced

3.5

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