Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

21 reviews

sofiya's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

Not sure how I feel about this one, in all honesty. I think Sally Rooney in general is very good at making relatable characters and writing about how they react to certain things, but the actual storyline and writing itself is weak and not very cohesive to me in the long run. The book felt drawn out, while the ending was almost rushed. There's also no real ending, which I think she does on purpose to signify how life doesn't really have an ending like in books.

That being said... I think I liked it more than Normal People? I still find the forced deepness of her characters to be more pretentious than thought-provoking, but they're a bit more explicit about it like they know that they're just trying to sound intelligent rather than just being intelligent. 

The medical storyline I didn't like very much. It felt misplaced and just made it feel as though Francis was obsessed with being separate and different from the rest of the world. Maybe I missed the point, but I wasn't a fan. The way her parents were used also felt purposeless for me, even though I'm assuming the point was to show us how the way we interact with people shapes us.

Overall, it was fine. I can see how some people love it and some people hate it, but I'd recommend just watching the show unless you really like Rooney's writing style. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, and Sexual content

Minor: Child abuse and Physical abuse

lacey_wi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Self harm

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Infertility, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Antisemitism

northernlitreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

the most interesting character i’ve read in a while. you know when you’re younger and want to be like the main character in a book? i found myself wanting to be like Frances which is strange because I don’t want to be cold or sleep with a married man but the way she thought about things - she’s very apathetic but also calculated? I found it really intriguing and wonder how other people would see me if I was less emotionally invested in everything. I know people complained about the emails in this - i liked it, it gave a sense of gravity to the discussions within them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Cursing, Self harm, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Blood, Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Infidelity

dannythestreet's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Cursing, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, and Infertility

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Car accident, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Homophobia, Police brutality, Sexual violence, and War

adelal's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

am i a sally rooney stan now???

in all seriousness, i found the characters just as unlikeable as in normal people but in this case, i thought the storyline was much more interesting. i liked the way the characters interacted with each other and how the relationships developed and became messier and messier. after a while, i stopped minding the fact that rooney hates quotation marks, which is a big deal bc i absolutely hated that while reading normal people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, and Self harm

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child abuse, Infertility, Vomit, and Alcohol

marissasa's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

1.0

I thought this book was quite boring and nothing really happened. The characters weren't likable or particularly interesting, except for Bobbi occasionally when she would go on long rants, though those were not frequent and she didn't do much besides that in terms of plot. I'm glad I listened to this on audiobook at 2x speed because I don't think I would have finished it otherwise, I just didn't care about the characters or anything that was happening to them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Child abuse, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, and Domestic abuse

haleylooloo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

This books was so interesting. Sally Rooney sure knows how to write them. 

I found the characters were likable, despite the fact that I normally have very strong moral lines drawn around the decisions that the characters made. I appreciated the moral ambiguity and lack of concrete conclusion to the issues at the end. The discussions had by the main characters were very interesting, and Frances’ internal dialogue was quite thought provoking. As a woman of similar age, I feel like I have had many of the same lines of thought as her, particularly around self-image and things like that, though Rooney always seems to take it a bit further. I also really appreciated the detailed episodes of endometriosis pain. It is something that so many women struggle with and I like that she didn’t shy away from describing the pain, and also the anxiety of not knowing what’s going on & subsequent helplessness once you know.

Overall, I haven’t entirely entirely decided how I feeling/what I think about this book. Will likely edit this review soon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

paulawind's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I have a lot of complicated feelings about this book and I’ll definitely need as while to properly digest it.

I saw myself in some aspects of Frances, I’m having the world as your oyster but not knowing what to do in life, second guessing every action and word, struggling with defining what really is “me”. 

I appreciate that Frances’s relationship with Bobbi was the true drive of the narrative. The ending was a bit open ended with Nick but even though he was important to the story I felt like he was just a plot device, in the same way as romantic interests (but majorly women) are used in media. My dislike of him was probably less motivated by his personality of the soggy toast but not by All Too Well playing at the back of my head all the time when 21 and 32 year olds interacted. 

The exploration of friendship is great here, I feel like when Frances and Bobbi interact or even share scenes together, the book comes out the strongest and best fleshed out, whereas the Frances-Nick sequences lack chemistry and ‘flavour’. 

It would have been a five star read if Nick got less screen time and Bobbi got more light on her - what we got was enough for me to develop a girlcrush on her - would love to be part of the circle and discuss current affairs and anarchism with her

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Child abuse

rebecca_t's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Self harm

Moderate: Mental illness and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

condensedmilk's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm and Blood

Minor: Child abuse and Pregnancy