Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

10 reviews

samanthaleereads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Chronic illness, Medical content, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Infidelity

Moderate: Blood, Infertility, Mental illness, and Classism

Minor: Vomit, Cursing, Physical abuse, and Drug use

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

nabila99's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

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

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Alcoholism

Minor: Classism, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and Infertility

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

aitngg's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

I am 20 and feeling lost, and this book just felt like a small peak into my life, like, literally, a conversation I would have with your friends. I love how Sally Rooney exposes complicated feelings and emotions that feel so mixed and real. Racial and socio-economical issues are also present in a way that does not feel like they are being forced into the plot, but they are part of the characters, and affect them. 

I have absolutely devoured it. Emotionally, not that many books make me feel that many things.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Infidelity

Moderate: Alcoholism and Addiction

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

cameeroo's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Alcoholism, Blood, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Medical content

Moderate: Miscarriage, Mental illness, Infertility, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Adult/minor relationship

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

savannahmonet's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

wetcheesereviews's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

I hate how sally rooney always manages to add in some context of violence towards women in a sexual nature as if these acts exist in a vacuum. Not to mention all books have a character name marianne and marianne looks exactly like sally rooney. Despite that it was an interesting and easy to read book, I enjoy sallys writing style without the use of speech marks and the story flows well. It deals with the complicity of relationships and how some people cannot let go, the main character always goes back to her toxic traits even when knowing how harmful they have been for her she feels as though she deserves that 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Physical abuse