Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

86 reviews

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Ableism, Kidnapping, Medical content, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Fatphobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Infidelity, Sexual assault, War, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Colonisation, Deportation, Racial slurs, Rape, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Sexism, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Grief, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Xenophobia

whatamidoing_rn's review against another edition

slow-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? Yes

3.0

Idk I probably should’ve waited until I was a bit older to read this so I might’ve got more out of it but oh well. The ending was surprising.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Pregnancy, Drug use, Blood, Death of parent, Violence, Sexual content, and Drug abuse

hazelnut119's review

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Sexual content

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-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

4.0

First time reading this book as an adult. Read it in school maybe like 2009 so it's strange to read it 15 years later. I remember finding it interesting and enjoying it. Now it feels weirdly nostalgic so I'm not sure what to rate it. Also because I definitely have a much different understanding of it now.

The audiobook had good narration.

I think this would be a 5 star for me if the story was a bit tighter, and the tone (because of when the book was written) feels kind of weird at points. 

Towards the end of the book it feels more like the author is telling us some of his societal hot takes via 2 characters having a conversation rahter than like working it more seamlessly into the story.

wish we saw more of what happened to Helmholtz and Bernard on their island of misfits. Also wish we saw what happe ed to Johns father. The part with John's anger towards Lenina was really interesting, lots of like weird projection shit on John's part - I hate the men who slept with my mother, they were bad, so now that I want to sleep with Lenina I'm bad? But he never wanted to hurt his mother for her actions and really loved her, so it was kind of weird how violent he got towards Lenina

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Child abuse, Alcohol, Classism, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, and Addiction

Minor: War

peyberry's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

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

1.5

Boring and weird tbh

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, Suicide, Sexual content, Violence, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Self harm

thepurplepeep's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content

classical_learner's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.75

10/10 ending
Favorite quotes:
“Men at last!”
“There were no words, not even in Shakespeare.”
“Pain is a delusion!” “Oh, it is?”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Sexual content

katiedupper's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide and Sexual content

kokoberry's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Vomit, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Grief, Infidelity, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Misogyny, Suicide, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Self harm

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Cursing, Fatphobia, and Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion, War, and Animal death

cursed_sapphire's review

challenging dark informative tense slow-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

4.5

The world and concepts are fascinating. If you can look past some of the dated ideas, you'll see a surprising amount of our world here. Huxley predicted some parts of our society too well. 

The characters are interesting but not likeable, I recommend knowing that going in. This book is an exploration of a potential future built on consumption, sameness, and constant pleasure. The characters are meant to embody different parts of humanity/society. Bernard is only content if he's more special than everyone else, Lenina wants more monogomy than is normal but otherwise accepts everything, Helmholtz is just kinda bored and wants to be a tortured poet, etc. John is supposed to be the last real person, representing a true believer in religion and art which cannot survive in this society. Mind you, John is a very 1930's Christian ideal of a true, good person. And while his obsession with suffering for his sins serves as a counter to the painless society of the book, it came across a bit overzealous for me. It felt like Huxley was trying to make John suffer all the pain everyone else never had to, but that made him feel a little too obsessed with pain instead of the virtues he claims to care about. The same could also be said about his obsession with chastity. 

This is a book more focused on ideas than on characters. The plot is a bit sparse, but that leads to a slice-of-life feeling, where the day-to-day life is the focus. There's a certain horror in the mundaneness that the characters experience, and that brings out the themes in a different, but still very effective way. 

Overall I recommend this for anyone who likes the philosophical side of sci-fi/dystopia, as long as they are able to handle the old-fashioned lense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Addiction, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Sexual harassment