Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

365 reviews

derivative's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

A bit cliche at times and a bit hard to get immersed in at times, but overall it was good. I think it wants to be more scifi but the setting ended up contemporary so it has this weird vibe of like not rly believing society would be like that. If it was able to lean into the scifi aspect a tiny bit more for worldbuilding itd be great

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child abuse and Abandonment

cartermon4's review

dark emotional sad 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

I was so frustrated throughout the book, but it definitely hints at real world inequalities and insane expectations for mothers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Grief, Addiction, Sexism, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Death, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Misogyny, and Animal death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Stalking, Racism, Confinement, Racial slurs, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Xenophobia, and Vomit

Minor: Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, and Car accident

stacy_27_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Save my girl Frida from these white men. This book made me feel so many emotions. I was going through it. Justice for my girl Frida, Emmanuelle, and Harriet.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Racial slurs, and Child abuse

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Death, and Suicide attempt

_nem_'s review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Blood, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Self harm, Abandonment, and Racism

Minor: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

talonsontypewriters's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.5

jesus fucking christ

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Confinement, Child abuse, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Misogyny, and Grief

Moderate: Classism, Violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Suicide, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, and Confinement

Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Lesbophobia, Rape, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, and Car accident

alex_heald's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Suicide

cheskams's review

challenging emotional slow-paced

4.75

A bit of a difficult read, filled with raw emotion. The world is very cleverly and well built. The language is creative and poignant. I was uncomfortable for much of my time reading, but in the way that I was so deeply immersed in Frida's story and the school. Truly brilliant.

My only criticism is how slow the beginning of the story is. I felt it took up too large of a chunk of the entire story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Misogyny

Moderate: Suicide and Child death

abbie_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

I was having a browse through some reviews of this one when I finished it and saw somebody comment that it would make a great limited TV series, and that immediately made me realise why it didn’t resonate with me as much as I thought it would. It has that almost-cinematic feel, where it sometimes seems like the author is writing specifically to see a scene played out on TV. The random forbidden romance thrown in, the draggy middle section, the coolly evil instructors, a lot of it feels written with a TV show in mind. And don’t get me wrong, it’d be a bloody compelling TV show!

Frida makes a huge mistake while looking after her daughter one day, but instead of a slap on the wrist, the state makes her participate in a newly rolled out programme to rehabilitate bad mothers. Separated from their children for a year, the mothers are sent to a defunct university campus to undergo 12 months’ of brutal training to become the best mothers they can be.

I enjoyed the commentary around issues like racism and misogyny, and obviously the sheer volume of responsibilities heaped on a mother’s shoulders (dads get more lenient punishments). But the middle of this book dragged so much. Chan obviously had a very clear idea of the school’s syllabus, but honestly I feel like the amount of description lessened the impact.

Frustrating and eerie, but not as powerful as I anticipated. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Confinement

emmmillly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment