Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

28 reviews

lisamarshall17's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Bullying, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Self harm

plumdustsuns's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It took me very long to get back to this book after the scene in the gymnasium as it was just really hard for me to get through. 
Upon return a year later, I had almost forgotten what I had read before. I wish it was a constant experience instead. 

However, I was rather disappointed by Kojima’s ending. She didn’t get as much of a ‘retribution’ or ‘fixing’ as Eyes. And the ‘I never saw her after that’ felt very… flat, albeit shocking. I required more explanation.

 
It was really beautiful in parts and I appreciate Kawakami’s ability to weave complex character dynamics within seemingly “simple” settings. But I think the layers of complexity may have been complemented by more elaboration and plot than just all the brutality at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts

sunflowersarepretty's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

wth?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual violence, Blood, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Child death

Minor: Medical content and Medical trauma

lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

Oh boi, this was a heavy one. Heaven follows our two main characters in middle school as they deal with severe bullying, and how their trauma brings them together in a desperate, and often dysfunctional, friendship.
 
Such a raw portrayal of brutal human experience, of abuse, and what people can do to each other. 

I rarely felt compelled to pick this one up, partly because of how difficult many of the scenes were to read, but also because it didn't fully grab my attention. For such a short book it did take me a little while to read. I can't really say I 'enjoyed' it, but it did definitely have an impact and is very skillfully written.

Please don't underestimate the content warnings with this one

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

conspystery's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

4.25

I’m conflicted about this book. It’s deceptive in how shallow it appears, especially towards the beginning; the writing style is subdued and polite almost to the point of clinicality, and the main character’s plight seems painfully simple. But it’s so much more than that. Kojima’s character arc is particularly fascinating, and so are her impacts on the narrator-- she’s presented sympathetically and ironically at once in her ideas about how best to deal with bullying. Momose is her narrative foil, the embodiment of the opposite extreme of these ideas. Heaven dives deep into the philosophy of bullying, and neither of the two main ways it’s presented are particularly appealing; Kojima is too willing to accept needless suffering, and Momose is too willing to fall into nihilism and hopelessness to care about anything, let alone other people. 

I think this book’s point is to balance these ideas about pain, to emphasize the importance of understanding that some suffering is out of our control while also asserting morality wherever it can be applied and standing up against needless pain when possible. It notes its own false dichotomy with how the main character responds to the ideas he’s shown. The way it makes this point is a bit meandering at times, with lots of scenes which feel like they compound the issues in the novel far past its main theme, and often deeply disturbing to read in its detail. Yet there are genuinely beautiful moments in this book as well, and the simple but precise writing highlights them in contrast with their darker, more uncomfortable counterparts. Overall, I liked what this book had to say about the importance of balance, and I also enjoyed the uncompromisingly sublime scenes (like at the very end of the novel.) The discomfort of the rest of the book was necessary to an extent, but some of it-- especially the scenes which were not explicitly, directly connected to the furthering of the philosophical content of the novel-- was a bit much for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Violence, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Eating disorder, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, and Medical trauma

faithemm's review

dark emotional reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

lotus440's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

adriaxlife's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.5

kind of a heavy read, i would recommend to check trigger warnings before reading.
i had to stop a few times when certain scenes where being descriptive. also, what was that ending? it feel flat and i’m still thinking what was the meaning of “heaven” all about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicide, Torture, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Blood, Bullying, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Eating disorder and Gaslighting

_inge's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

I knew this would be a tough read. I usually avoid books which feature bullying as it is, and I was warned of particularly vivid descriptions of bullying in this novel. I didn’t think it would be this vivid and this disturbing, however. I skimmed some passages because they were too much to handle. There’s a lot of trigger warnings for anything relating to bullying in this. 

I didn’t feel a connection to any of the main characters, as them being bullied was the center of this novel. Aside from Kojima’s interest in art and both of them enjoying reading fiction, we don’t actually see them do anything beyond being bullied or discussing what bullying has done to them. I don’t even think the protagonist is named, as everyone simply calls him ‘Eyes’ when he’s bullied. Bullying therefore takes over their entire personalities. 

This does mean there’s space for some really interesting conversations about what it means to be bullied or to bully. Some ideas on this really helped me shape my own feelings about having been bullied in the past.

I love that we got a conversation between one of the bullies and the protagonist as well. I’m not sure if I agree with the ‘happy’ ending; I wonder if the protagonist genuinely felt disturbed by his eye too and wanted it fixed because of that, or if his sole reasoning for wanting it fixed was being bullied for it.

I wish we’d learn more about Kojima too. Since the protagonist doesn’t see her again I hope she didn’t harm herself in any way. The ‘happy’ ending for him therefore didn’t feel as happy as a whole, as Kojima might be struggling.

 

All in all this was a difficult read. It’s definitely not for everyone, and I’m unsure what to think of this myself. It’ll be interesting to see if I think back on this in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Torture, Bullying, Self harm, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content, Medical content, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, and Dysphoria

cf1990xxx's review

dark sad 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, and Child abuse