Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

86 reviews

alexcooper88's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

nithya_natalya's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-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

Trying to read more books by Palestinian authors, and this one showed up on a few lists of recs. I'm not normally a literary fiction fan, so I struggled through this. So much of this book is Yara's inner thoughts, and not a lot of plot. Normally, I would hate that. However, I'm giving it 4 stars though because it made me cry multiple times, and the fact that it brought such strong emotions at me means it was doing something right. I saw myself and my family in Yara's experience. I also am a sucker for storylines involving platonic love, and there was a great friendship in this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Infidelity, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: War, Colonisation, Genocide, and Homophobia

jennireadsmaybe's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

How do I write a review for Evil Eye? How do I capture how much this book means to me? 

Evil Eye follows Yara, a Palestinian American woman, who after marrying and leaving her conservative family behind in Brooklyn is seemingly living the dream. She's gotten to do everything that her mother never could. She's working at a local college, married to a nice man, and raising her two daughters. Everything's great. Except it doesn't feel like enough.  

Etaf Rum is a forced to be reckoned with; there's no other way to put it. Evil Eye explores generational trauma, motherhood, depression, friendship, and the deeply personal desire to be loved by the people around us. It's a hard read, but a necessary one in my opinion. 

There were so many lines throughout the book that were a punch in the gut. Rum's writing is at once beautiful and harrowing, but I never find myself lost by it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism

koiolee's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This book has a purpose. But it's not really my cup of tea. I normally love books about marginalized communities fighting what they know to move forward, change, heal, but this book felt more like a therapy session than a story of healing. There are long segments of typical therapy advice, stories, jargon, that makes the book drag on. There's metaphors that the author tells you explicitly what they mean, instead of an implicit nod towards. It feels like you're dumbing it down for your audience, when your audience is likely college-level, college-educated, media literate readers. You're writing for a small audience, when your actual audience are more or less people like me.
EDIT: It gives Catcher in the Rye vibes omg.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Islamophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Sexism, Grief, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Self harm

windmillofwords's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Infidelity

kjofalltrades's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad 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: Racism, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Mental illness

ka_schulze's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Misogyny

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child abuse

ekgraham's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Domestic abuse

mazden's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective tense slow-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

this book was so beautifully written and kept me engaged the whole time. there was not a plot necessarily but instead followed the inner thoughts of Yara, a Palestinian woman struggling to overcome generational trauma.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

aliireads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective relaxing tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Good book! Very sad and hard to read at times. A little frustrating with Yara’s family and upbringing, but the ending is good. The last 1/3 kind of drags on, but the book was good overall. It covers abuse, spousal abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, depression, anxiety, etc. definitely a heavy book, but it also has some very sweet moments. Everyone deserves a friend like Silas. I would recommend it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Racism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Mental illness, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts