Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Habibi by Craig Thompson

4 reviews

badger_badger's review

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Read as a teenager but picked up again as I think some of its depth went over my head before. Beautiful and thoughtful book, interweaving stories from the Quran with the life stories of Dodola and Zam. It’s not something I’m familiar with from my background so I don’t know if it does it justice. The art is astounding and the.narrative has an engaging mix of pace jumping between reflections and then fantasy or adventure like qualities. 

The story is based a lot on Dodolas sexual objectification and how painful this is for her, as well has how Zam then battles with his own masculinity and sexuality (and the exploration of sexuality, purity, love etc is very well done). From this, one qualm with the book is that the way Dodola is drawn throughout feels gratuitous at times, even at some horrific moments or when she’s a child it feels as if she’s still been drawn to cater to the readers aesthetic pleasure. It might have been to represent how those in the book viewed her but I found it uncomfortable at times to say the least. At time I also felt that it might be a bit orientalist and that some of the exploration of race/racism falls a bit flat. 

The exploration of environmental destruction though and how this weaves through and ties together the different aspects of the book to be it the religious stories, different forms of exploitation, the characters stories/inner world/ etc is pretty interesting and makes the book feel like a modern day fable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Kidnapping, Abortion, Racism, Pedophilia, Slavery, Addiction, Abandonment, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

ecster's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Slavery, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion and Vomit

alicecrow's review

adventurous dark sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

While the art is impressive and the story carries you away, there were moments I was unsure what it all meant. I found it difficult to understand what the author meant by certain parts of the book. Thompson is obviously an impressive storyteller and artist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Racial slurs

Minor: Abandonment and Abortion

anneschreurs's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

really good read and the art is beautiful and suits the story very well. it is a book full of heavy topics and it is a good idea to check with yourself if you have the right mindset to read it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Rape, Trafficking, Death, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Kidnapping, Infertility, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Abortion, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Vomit

Minor: Death of parent and Bullying