Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Julia by Sandra Newman

9 reviews

skoot's review against another edition

The book starts off with a lot of the cw stuff dropping one after the other. They come up fast like a deer jumping out onto the road. I'm not apposed to the material, I just something about the exposition of the story happening in the same order as the events in "1984" seem to limit the delivery and pacing of of the over all prose. I have not read this author before, but I like the writing style enough I'd still try another book. However, at 14% these issues caused me to abandon DNF. The >20 CW I have listed all happen before I abandoned. And, based on other comments, there were still yet more to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Violence, Gaslighting, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Body horror, and Homophobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Classism, and Pregnancy

Minor: War, Drug use, Death of parent, Blood, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Vomit, Death, and Trafficking

greylovesbroccoli's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Classism, Drug use, Police brutality, Miscarriage, War, and Death

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, and Death of parent

jaswalsh's review

challenging dark tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Torture, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

danaegolding's review

challenging dark sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

pepper_le_puck's review

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This is the angle if 1984 I've bern waiting for. Written in the POW if Julia, it illuminates the life for women (and children) under Big Brother and several other perspectives I felt the original novel was lacking. 
Could probably be read as a standalone novel, if you're not in to Orwell. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Sexual assault

japxican's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Body horror, Abortion, Child death, and Blood

Minor: Suicide, Sexual harassment, War, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Vomit, Violence, and Trafficking

lilybear3's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I was so excited to see this book announced.  I read 1984 right before this so it'd be fresh in my mind and I'm glad I did.  I think someone could read this alone and be okay, but the story, environment, and characters (specifically those we met already) would be bare.  This book does rely on your knowledge of its source material, but I don't think that's a bad thing.  It felt like easter eggs, but it incorporated the original so much.  The book's concept is 1984 through Julia's perspective so seeing the timelines line up is really cool.  Incorporating these quotes and moments is seamless, like they aren't forced.  I loved that we finally got a book that explored Julia's backstory and what she was thinking and going through.  There were a lot of unexpected moments for me and they weren't always climatic, but they were interesting and added depth.  CW:  descriptions of torture and injuries and we obviously know bad things happen so definitely check those content warnings; it was a lot at times, but I've read worse.  I had a lot of thoughts I wanted to share and most of those are hidden because spoilers.

I love the feminist direction of the story.  Obviously, a lot of it hit because we are going through similar things the U.S., like for some, abortion/miscarriage=murder.  There's broader commentary like women are expected to just take the pain and not have access or resources to get care.  Also women being okay with being alone and wanting alone time. 

From my journal entries:  WOMEN AS TOOLS AND COMMODITIES when O'Brien recruits her to help the Thought Police and seduce men to the "private room."

Julia is our

bi/pan heroine.  This quote is so good:  "It was just part of the feminine nature to love and be loved at the drop of a hat, to make a romance of sharing a pair of slippers and putting them on warm from another's feet."

  Upon reading 1984, you think of Winston as kind of intelligent and right for opposing the Party,

but my god you realize he's a dolt AND he never truly loved Julia, he just loved rebellion even though his verbal activism was performative.  I think there’s an interesting mirror in that Winston wants her to blindly follow him while the party makes people blindly follow them.

  Also love that

O'Brien's spiel in Room 101 was stolen by a woman, just to show that he never had an original idea.

  For Julia's character

how much of a feminist she is is ambiguous.  There are times where she is and some times she is not.  It's really up to interpretation.  I think this is realistic in that she has been in the Party for so long that there is internalized misogyny and Party thoughts that she hasn't fully broken away from.  This could be commentary on white woman feminism (or the fact that the author is a white woman).  About halfway through, I wrote:  Still can't tell if she's content seducing men for the Thought Police and wants to be in the Party (genuinely or out of survival) or she doesn't want to do this at all and wants to rebel from within.  It feels like it could be both.

Ending:

I don’t know if I fully understood the ending.  Like I don’t think I got her reaction to seeing big brother and why he was actually some old guy named Humphrey Pease.  And glad Vicky escaped but now she’s caring for Humphrey.  I don’t know if I fully grasp the meaning of the questions being asked to Julia.  They’re the same questions that O’Brien asked Julia and Winston.  Julia is hesitant and says “whatever you think” and the Reynolds writes yes for all of the questions and sort of decides for her, but Julia agrees.  I think this could be because the first time, Winston answers yes for her and she didn’t have a say, but now she does? So the ending is that she escapes London and gets rescued by the Brotherhood or Free Men and pledges to help them in weakening the Party.

The writing is more contemporary, though there are words and sentence structure that feel reminiscent of 1984.  I was so engaged and I couldn't put this book down.  I am personally taking this sequel/different POV as cannon.  1984 is still one of my favorite books of all-time (I even have a tattoo) so this is a great continuation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Abortion, Vomit, Pregnancy, War, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Torture, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Body horror, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Slavery

mhairimc's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

2.75

This is an interesting exploration of the main female character in Orwell’s ‘1984.’ 
For the most part it follows the plotting of 1984, while not shying away from engaging with the brutality of Airstrip One, which works as counter point. It does not valorise any character or sect but does flesh out reasoning and explications for actions within the narrative. 
At times it is overdrawn and looses the sinister overtones of the original by explicitly describing atrocities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Genocide, Pregnancy, Abortion, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Classism, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Torture, Emotional abuse, Rape, Violence, and War

clotalksbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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I'm so glad I had just read 1984, as it really enhanced my understanding and enjoyment of this book. Although it could be read as standalone, I think it will mean so much more to those who have read 1984. 

It gave me all the things I love about a book with multiple POVs, to hear the side of Julia from 1984 and how differently characters view the same events. 

It was such an interesting take and completely believable. The story added a depth of character to Julia that was missing from 1984. This book doesn't take away from 1984 in any way, and is the perfect accompaniment to it. 

Despite the darkness, some of the lines made me chuckle - it is very dry and witty. The writing is also accessible and not too preachy even while making some very important observations. 

Very clever, I would recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, War, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Drug use