Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

61 reviews

davschi's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Kidnapping

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Death, Eating disorder, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Outing

grumpyreading's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.5

Yeahhhh I didn’t like this book. While I appreciate the general idea of bringing focus away from the killer in this story, and focusing on the women and their stories, I feel like this missed the mark. Though the author doesn’t say the name Ted Bundy (or a fictionalized version of it), this book was intended to portray the victims and survivors of his crimes. While it was supposed to offer a commentary on the exploitative nature of true crime, and the people who idolize serial killers, it felt exploitative in itself. The very very graphic accounts of what was done to the victims and survivors felt unnecessary at many points for the way the story was being told, and at many points it was confusing what was fact and what was fiction. By using some facts, real names, and real details, alongside fictional details, the story was blurred, and it felt as though the author was concerned with telling the stories of real victims, but did this in a way that was not very tasteful, was potentially insensitive to the victims and their families, and that took away from their actual stories (that many have told themselves as well). 

I also felt that some of the subplots were very surface level, and added confusion or unnecessary details at best. In general, the book was very slow and there wasn’t a ton that happened, and there was nothing outstanding about the writing or the way this was told. It definitely dragged on. 

While I appreciate the intention, I feel like this book could have been told as a new story (not based on a true one) and gotten the same points across in a better way, rather than continuing to be somewhat exploitative about these crimes. The author could have focused on this theme through fiction, and could have drawn attention to accounts written by victims/survivors/families of the crimes she is portraying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

livperryman's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

fuck men

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

poojag's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

She perched on the edge of the bed, delicately, so counter to the coarse physicality we showed each other at The House that I discovered a new loss to mourn.

Women generally had more troubles than men, and it was the men, generally, who were trained to treat them.

In-fan-til-iz-ing?”
“It’s when people treat perfectly capable adults like children,” she said, “and they tend to do it to young women.”

“They will call you hysterical no matter how much dignity you have. So you might as well do whatever the hell you want.”

It was indigestible, all the methods humans had devised to inflict more suffering.

“I’d like to propose that anger in women is treated as a character disorder, as a problem to be solved, when oftentimes it is entirely appropriate, given the circumstances that trigger it.”

Women got that feeling about him, that funny one we all get when we know something isn’t right, but we don’t know how to politely extricate ourselves from the situation without escalating the threat of violence or harassment. That is not a skill women are taught, the same way men are not taught that it is okay to leave a woman alone if what she wants is to be left alone.

—nature is the very best example of integration. Things grow differently when they’re damaged, showing us how to occupy strange new ground to bloom red instead of green. We can be found, brighter than before.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

katierobertsonshaddix's review

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

paeten_'s review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love that this book never shares The Defendant's name. So often, books are written almost worshipping serial killers. Making them out to be much more intelligent, good looking, cunning, etc. than they really are while their victims are made out to be weak and unable to protect themselves. It's very refreshing to read a book that does the opposite! He's not that smart, not that handsome, and not that charismatic. He was just a bad man who made it his life purpose to hurt women and girls.

That being said, I wish the survivors and families of the victims had been given a voice, rather than fictionalized versions of them. Would be 5 stars if they had been included!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Stalking

Minor: Eating disorder, Pedophilia, and Kidnapping

_meganrose's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

Men and their fragile egos are an absolute disgrace. The actions. The inactions. The manipulation. The willingness to be manipulated. An absolute disgrace and I hope that everyone who played a role in the holes that enabled such a horrible human to do what he did live/lived the rest of their lives with a never-ending pit of shame consuming them. That, of course, would take having enough emotional intelligence and humility to recognize their mistakes. But I digress.

I respect that the author refused to use his name. Because quite frankly, it has always bothered me how he has been romanticized and portrayed in media. Only recently have I started to hear criticism on this, which means we are at least moving in the forward direction as a society (I hope).

4 stars because the perspective was refreshing, the belittlement of such a despicable human being was well overdue being warranted, and I couldn’t put it down.

That being said, it wasn’t an enjoyable reading experience so I don’t feel right giving 5 stars. This is no fault to the author. The darkness of this book was heavy and will haunt me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual assault, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

leighb_3's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol