Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

27 reviews

tinalalatina's review

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Alcoholism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Body shaming, Child abuse, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, and Mental illness

calireisreading's review

reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Chronic illness and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Domestic abuse and Medical content

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-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

4.5

my second go with Sally Rooney (first being Normal People), and this time was much more enjoyable. nowhere near as bleak and depressing, but still very emotional. i found the narrator’s desperate need for validation relatable; me too girlie. really well plotted. don’t be fooled by the title though: it’s a lot of internal monologue and more about the conversations that didn’t happen than the ones that did.

i have to comment on the US cover, especially for the audiobook (storygraph shows a different one but you can see what i’m talking about here: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DTekX2n4L._SL500_.jpg). first of all, i don’t mind the composition but i dislike the art style, its flatness and lifelessness when this book is all about complex characters. but what really bothers me is that i think some other artist was given the task of adapting the cover art to a square aspect ratio for the audiobook, and literally copied, pasted, and mirrored the original tightly-cropped faces, adding in the nose bits. because, why are they so symmetrical?? why are their facial features so small?? it’s firmly in the uncanny valley. shoutout to the Danish cover, though, so pretty: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/0bf9c4f3-3123-4d7b-a6b5-8955ff06e5f6
edit: the Russian hardcover is also beautiful: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/183d6a3b-d207-4cfb-aa9e-e36bc6df3f84 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Body horror, Child abuse, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Vomit, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, War, Classism, and Miscarriage

17eoakes's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

My first impression of this book is that it was pretentious and boring and it was enjoyed by pretentious people who like to find something in nothingness. That was a harsh criticism of a book that is just simply not my usual kind of book. I’m used to simple and subscriptive romcoms that  let me turn my brain off and forget about the world and all my troubles. This book did not let me forget my troubles. This book flashed up ugly and hurtful things and it didn’t try to cover them up or make them digestible. That is perhaps why this book is considered witty and remarkable. There is something to be found in this book but it lays majoritively in the emotions and experiences it forces you to acknowledge. This book is not one to read if you would like to stay in denial about painful things. I have to admit that throughout this book and perhaps right up until the second to last page, I wanted either Nick or Frances to die. In my reasoning if one of them died then all this misery they both seem to feel all the time would have a purpose and a reason and it wouldn’t just be misery that infests and grows and is hard to digest. I’ve given this book 3 stars, if I were less of a coward I would give it 5 stars, and maybe one day I will. Sally Rooney has a talent and I might not like it but it is very hard to deny it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness and Self harm

Minor: Domestic abuse

gabbygarcia's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Mental illness

Minor: Cursing, Vomit, Domestic abuse, and Infertility

mxbluet18's review against another edition

slow-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

0.25

I really struggled with this one. I didn't have to put it down and walk away, but I found myself not really wanting to read it a few times.
~
Similarly to Normal People it also covers some heavy topic material and has a number of trigger warnings. 
~
Realistically, I can't really say I enjoyed it, I mostly feel neutral about it. There really wasn't anything I liked or specifically didn't like about it. It was just a book. One comment I had was how focused on sex it was, which for me is something I just don't enjoy reading in a book. For other people I'm sure that's not a real problem, but for me it was.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Eating disorder

Minor: Self harm

ale15sousa's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Infidelity, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Blood, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Alcohol, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, Infertility, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Police brutality, War, Child death, and Colonisation

hannahrogers's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Mental illness, Cursing, Self harm, Infidelity, and Chronic illness

Minor: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Domestic abuse

tetedump's review against another edition

challenging sad tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Mental illness, Blood, Chronic illness, Vomit, and Domestic abuse

yourwordsalitmatch's review

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I loved the writing style of this book. I had to get used to it first but the way Sally Rooney writes feels very authentic and honest.
For the book: It was good. But there where a few things that really bothered me (hence the 3.75 stars). Mental health is a very big issue in the book. And I don't mean the fact that we learn about Nick's past problems. The main characters mental health (and also her dad's) is rapidly getting worse and it never really gets addressed properly in the book. Maybe that is done on purpose but I don't really understand why (if it's in purpose)? I was waiting for someone close to Francis to act or at least mention it. Especially Nick given the fact the he knows what it's like to be severly depressed?? At some point it almost felt illogical to me that no one ever talked about it. Big parts of Francis behavior (and development along the story) reminded me of the Bell jar. Maybe this is going over my head but I just don't get how mental health, self harm, suicidal thoughts, severe depressiv episodes can be such a big focus of a book without ever being relevant to the story in any way. I hope anyone understands what I'm trying to say here. It's not easy to explain what I mean. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Blood

Minor: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Physical abuse