Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Boy Parts

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

hjb_128's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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begumisu's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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isaarusilor's review

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challenging 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? Yes

4.5

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moriarty94's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

This book really struck me. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it.

Irina sucks. She's a horrible person. She is mean and self-centered, dehumanizing and manipulating everyone around her. She gives very little thought to the consequences of her actions, with one very notable exception.

I feel bad for everyone who has the misfortune of interacting with Irina. Why does Flo hang on after all these years? What could she possibly love about Irina, or the way Irina treats her? Why would Finch want to hang around her, after seeing how she treats Flow and hearing Irina's critique of his photos.

Irina's decisions stressed me out. She put herself in so many dangerous situations, and then tried to brush them off. She is such a misandrist (which I understand, to an extent, after some of her experiences), but is also subject to patriarchal standards of beauty and female behavior - and projects that onto everyone else. Irina seems to hate men, objectifying them and physically hurting them whenever she can. But she her hatred and objectification of other women only seems to be mental and emotional.

This detestable and unreliable narrator made for an interesting story. It made me wildly uncomfortable, made me think, and made me set it down and take a lap after a particularly gory description of self-harm. Irina was right when she said,

"I wonder what the fuck I have to do for people to recognize me as a threat?"

Had Irina been a man, her models would not have hidden their fear or hurt behind haughty fake masculinity - or fear of being turned in to the police for assault.

No one saw Irina as a threat because she was pretty and skinny and talented. They saw her as a conquest until it was too late. And Irina took advantage of that, even when she hated it.

Overall I really liked this book. It was a harsh reminder that people make poor choices when it comes to people we love(d) or want to love/notice/have sex with us. I do wonder what happened to Mr. B - I think he knew

the Polaroids were real and he cut himself off for fear of being implicated

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gracesvcr's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

☆ ☆ 2.5 Stars
(spoiler-ish warning...maybe??)
There was a whole lot going on with this book and then there was a whole lot of nothing in the end. There were multiple times throughout the book where I questioned what the point was and where the point is. Every 2 chapters, I would wonder what the deeper meaning behind all the details were, but I would usually end up with no answers and continue on my questioning. It was difficult for me to sort out where this book was headed but not in the way of intrigue like other thrillers do for me where I am ravenously digging into the book wondering what the next page will entail. Instead, it was more in the ways of, "is this worth my time?" and, "is there a deeper meaning, because I hope there is at the end of all this?"
I felt like I got nothing out of this book and I was supposed to get something from the way that it had structured itself. It seemed like there was going to be this big plot twist or this big message on something. The little scenes and details and characters, they were all supposed to mean something, but they just...kind of didn't. I stress the meaning so much in my review because the book held itself with such importance, but maybe that was just Irina's narcism bleeding through the pages making it out to be bigger than it actually was.

This book was attempting to be something shocking, unseen, taboo, kinky, conforming to a niche group of people, and the like. I won't deny it these titles, but I think the execution was poor. It's almost ironic how similar this book is to Irina's photography business and personality. What it ended up as was a confusing mess with open plot lines and very serious topics (like gender, sex, BDSM, abuse, SA, rape, ect.) left inadequately communicated. I understand trying to touch on taboo topics like having an edgy character that is gay and overly sexual for a female. The thing is, the book really just did too much. Like I think it was trying to touch on every obscure, 'edgy', taboo topic of our generation. What Eliza Clark failed to do was come to a conclusion on all the topics. She touches on them, but she doesn't really form an arch or a story or a resolution with them. The structure and the plot just fell flat in many areas and with little to no resolution on these heavy/more taboo topics, it kind of loses any meaning she was trying to achieve.

The portrayal of the BDSM community and sadism, specifically, was so poorly written. With no aftercare, no communication, and little to no consent, it almost feeds into the stereotypes of BDSM rather than contribute to the community at all. The most important thing about portraying sadism or BDSM in general is the strong use of consent. This book is literally just rape and SA, which can be fine if it is done in the right way. To my understanding from this book, the men are just straight up extremely uncomfortable with Irina sexually, but for some reason, Eliza keeps them going right back to her. I think Eliza was trying to pull this bigmessage about how Irina has 'little to no consequences to her actions' and making it some massive thing that's supposed to elicit a response in the reader. To me, her point just fell flat and just miscommunicates kinky sex.
Also, I understand the main character is supposed to be a sociopath/narcissist that lacks any and all empathy and just wants to just hurt people/self sabotage, but I feel like it could have been written better. It was almost like Eliza Clark was confused on whether to make the sex consensual and then changed her mind middle way through, but kept attempting this ploy throughout the book.

For some of the highlights, the book didn't end up on my DNR list and didn't take me too long to read either. (I did find myself taking multiple breaks b/c the main character is just insufferable but she's supposed to be). Luckily, it also didn't kill my reading streak (which I'm very grateful for). There were a few good prose and quotes in this book, but at the end of the day, I feel like the book was just trying to accomplish too much in which it fell flat with me.

All this to say, I did not absolutely hate the book regardless of the low rating and criticisms that I have of it. I think it was interesting at the end of the day, but the goal of the book just didn't get achieved for me. Also, I just feel like the lines of consent blur a little too much and misunderstandings about taboo sex and sex in general could get misconstrued. But...maybe that was the point so I don't know. This book left me feeling confused.

(if there are any typos, I apologize. I am a stressed/burnt out nursing student just trying to mentally survive and it's 1 am. Thanks for reading <3

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editorgrrl's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

Irina (or did her mam name her “Irene”?) is a painfully thin female bisexual Patrick Bateman (complete with business cards and cleaning products) from Northern England.

An unreliable narrator, she drops names, watches ultra violent films, and wishes she were a stone cold bitch rather than a plumber’s daughter who’s only working part time at a seedy bar so that her mam will continue to pay half her rent.

If you hate unlikable characters, this is not the book for you. I found it darkly humorous, and a little sad.

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robbie_d94's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

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

3.75

I'm quite a tough reviewer with 3.75 being categorised as "Excellent" in my review matrix. I found this book extremely funny while being equally disturbing as the main character becomes increasly disassociated through the book. Would recommend.

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