Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

27 reviews

bookoline's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Islamophobia, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Racism, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Religious bigotry

bellabooks0423's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

michaelion's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

No, I am not Palestinian. No, I am not from New York nor have I ever been. No, I am not a mother. No, I am not married. No, I have never been a teacher. No, I am not the eldest daughter, nor do I have siblings. 

BUT SHE JUST LIKE ME FR !!!!!! I LOVE HER SHE IS ME. ETAF RUM YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS. Perfect writing. Perfect exploration of culture and family. I don't have the words to express how moved I was. Am! She just like me fr !!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Moderate: Physical abuse, Grief, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

Minor: Xenophobia, Islamophobia, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Religious bigotry

jmiles758's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Racism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Child abuse

readingwithtemperance's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

Evil Eye's main focus is generational trauma. How it seeps into every nook and cranny of our lives. And how breaking the cycle can be excruciating but so freeing at the same time. 

The therapy sessions/journal entries were so personal. My heart ached for Yara so much. I loved watching her finally be able to begin to heal and find out who she truly is/what she wants out of her life. 

Etaf Rum's writing is so engaging. Every time I stopped reading I just wanted to jump back in. I would love to read more from her in the future! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Islamophobia, Toxic relationship, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Death of parent

martinj's review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent

readingwithgoose's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Gaslighting, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism

mandi_lea's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Grief

wchereads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective

4.5

I went through a rollercoaster worth of emotions reading this. I think it broke me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Racism

breannajanay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

EVIL EYE follows the story of 29-year-old Yara whose life is suddenly thrown into upheaval after a provocation at work lands her in mandatory counseling. This counseling begins a journey into introspection, leading to further questions and contradictions regarding the life Yara wishes to live, and the life she currently leads.

I give this book 3.25 stars out of 5 with much hesitancy, so I want to begin with the good -- this book knows exactly how to depict what it is like to be held hostage by your own emotions, your self-doubt, and your visceral fear of returning to the past. This book explores the nature of forgiveness,

especially in the absence of the person you seek it from most

. It explores a reluctant grit, and a strength that starts off soft. It explores the complexity of motherhood and depicts with alarming clarity that seemingly incompatible feeling: one's unshakeable love for one's children, also in the face of one's inflexible desire for freedom.

This book is a beautiful exploration of the literary "haunt". Traumas and lingering questions manifest in the forms of ghosts from the past, and lessons are learned through memories filled with people who do not walk within the physical vicinity of the story. Most of the cast of characters that hold Yara suffocatingly in place we do not meet face-to-face. And yet their affect is strong and palpable and threatening to Yara's conception of the self.

Something else that I adored about this book is the thing after which it is titled: The Evil Eye. Intergenerational trauma, as we know, is often attributed to households of color in which ancestors have had to live through and experience unspeakable manners of living. The internalized trauma adopted in those experiences is passed down upon child upon child upon child. Like a curse. What I mean to say is the use of spirituality here is supremely genius, as the evil eye necklace serves as a physical reminder to the reader that there is some unfinished business. And the way Yara subconsciously presses her fingers, and therefore herself, into it is also a representation of how we may not know it but we carry the small details of our histories as if they were permanent accessories.

Now. I give this book 3.25 stars because some things didn't sit right with me, no matter how much I tried to rationalize them. Yara's conflict begins with

a coworker who suggests Yara's freedom is severely infringed upon by her role as a mother and a housewife, and that this is something that is experienced throughout her culture. Such a suggestion made by her coworker causes Yara to call her out for the blatantly obvious racist remark and sends Yara to counseling

. I'm just wondering how this book sought to negate that accusation, by stipulating Yara's growth must and can only happen outside of the arms of the Arab community. Yara's entry point into self-actualization begins in a predominantly white space, with a white gay man as her confidante. This isn't to suggest that this makes Yara's growth any less real, but it does make me wonder about her convictions. If she was so sure it was not an "Arab thing", enough to bring her to publicly admonish a coworker (when, usually, she does her best to stay away from attention), why is it that she didn't try speaking to someone else within her community? Someone outside of her husband and father?

I think this manifests in the various cultural disconnects that happen between Yara and Silas, and the many times Silas apologizes for his ignorance toward Yara's experiences as she details them to him. Apologizing for the things he did not know or did not mean to imply. It felt as though the author was accounting for something there. Or... that could be me projecting.

Perhaps my gripe is personal, in that most popular forms of media depict POC growth and mentorship occurring only in proximity to whiteness/white spaces as a requirement. The real estate for diverse stories happening outside of the scrutiny of whiteness is already so small and I wish we could have seen what surely is true, that Yara is but one of many women who blaze new trails, often walking side-by-side and in solidarity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse