Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

12 reviews

louiepotterbook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.25

What keeps me from giving it 5 stars is that I fear the author did not intend what I got out of it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Incest, Miscarriage, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Suicide, Blood, Gore, Gaslighting, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

issyd23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Insane last chapter: Gray deconstructs & satirises not just the novel but class, love & objectivity in storytelling/history. Keen to see how the film compares! 3🧠 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Classism, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Suicide, and Terminal illness

lenka_juchelkova's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

hate the movie, love the book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia and Domestic abuse

lattelibrarian's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Fuck YES. I loved this book. It reminded me greatly of my first weird love, The Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis. Its epistolary nature, weird illustrations, letters, chicken scratch, and more created an absolutely unique reading experience. However, what we've come to know now as the 'movie portion' of the book is from Bella Baxter's husband's perspective...which is more fiction than fact, according to Bella, now, Victoria. 

It begs the questions of women's narratives, and who is allowed to tell them. It also begs the question of control, of medicine, of loving and living out of necessity or out of survival.

I'm somehow at a loss of words for this book--it was so much better than I could have imagined and brought my curiosity to new depths; it's sparked imagination like no other.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Minor: Domestic abuse

adventures_in_bookstagram's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny 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? Yes

4.25

Interesting, occasionally surreal with effective metatextual elements and great performances by Kathryn Drysdale and Russ Bain as the narrators. The central concept is creepy and a bit gross (various men lusting after a woman with a child's brain), but those characters are presented as grotesque and/or pathetic so, to me, it reads as satire of male objectification of women (especially girls), especially when we get Bella/Victoria's perspective in the third act. I enjoyed the blend of genres, with unexpected dips into sci-fi (as a Frankenstein retelling), horror and magical realism (the Scream stands out), travel narratives and pseudo-historiography (I really enjoyed the preface and editor's notes, for example). There was also lots of commentary on classism, gender, misogyny (including medical misogyny), colonialism, regionalism (the main characters are <i>Scottish</i> and that matters!) and socialism and it was interesting to watch the naive and sheltered main character discover and reckon with the world's injustices; her long letter to the male narrator was one of my favourite sections of the novel.  It was also a lot funnier than I was expecting, though it ends on a kind of bitter-sweet note. Finally, I loved its strong sense of place and many references to places in Glasgow! This is a weird one, but well worth reading for its unusual narrative choices and fantastic heroine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Medical content, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Abortion, Incest, and Pedophilia

The central concept flirts with pedophilia without technically actually featuring pedophilia, but some readers may not be comfortable with it. There are also incestuous overtones to the MC's relationship with her Guardian/father figure, according to the male narrator, though his perspective is later called into question. It only features relatively briefly, but the main character is also threatened with a clitoridectomy and shaming female sexual desire is a major theme, this being a novel set in the Victorian era about a sexually-active woman.

a_violentfemme's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

I can't help but compare this to movie (and of course this why I picked up rhe book in the first place). The format was not what I expected and surprised me. I loved the way Bella's early ways of speaking were written and I loved the pace, it really helps form her character. Her "education", as it transpires in the book is also very interesting from the British empire to women's health, all felt realistic and of the time period it is set. 
However, I was not crazy about the ending- I thought i was going to hate it (but am very glad for the last page). 

Usually I am of the strong opnion that "the book is better than the adaption" but actually the film adds so much to this narrative it's made me enjoy it even more. The costuming for example added so much to Bella's character and overall the vibe of the film is a perfect take on the novel. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Domestic abuse, and Child death

claudiatralenuvole's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

Un romanzo che mi ha dato molto su cui riflettere. La sua struttura meta-letteraria si presta a molte interpretazioni ed è la parte più bella provare ad andare oltre ciò che viene raccontato.
Cosa è vero? Ciò che ci viene detto dal narratore inattendibile? O ciò che racconta Bella?
L'autore ci mostra come - nell'Ottocento ma anche oggi - la narrazione delle donne sia fatta dagli uomini. Non importa cosa dicano o facciano, le donne libere nel corpo e nella mente sono streghe o demòni o bambinette ingenue.
E gli uomini, povere creature, credono di sapere tutto su di loro, credono di possederle, ma la verità è che non hanno capito nulla. Questa almeno è la mia interpretazione.
La scrittura di A. Gray è molto scorrevole e abbastanza ritmata. I suoi dialoghi sanno divertire pur facendo riflettere. 
Era la prima volta che prendevo così tanti appunti durante una lettura. E credo sia un libro che a ogni rilettura di comunica qualcosa di nuovo.
La parte finale, poi, cambia totalmente l'idea che ti eri fatto del romanzo e del suo messaggio. Ho apprezzato questa sorta di plot twist (che plot twist forse non è, piuttosto una prospettiva diversa sui fatti).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse and Sexual content

viktorsboy's review

challenging mysterious reflective

Way more interesting than the movie 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Domestic abuse

gordyfromschool's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Incest, Classism, Physical abuse, Abortion, Body horror, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, and Colonisation

readdanoread's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Body horror, Death, Ableism, Racial slurs, Miscarriage, Antisemitism, Mental illness, Gun violence, Racism, Medical content, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Cursing, Colonisation, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Suicide, Grief, Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Alcoholism