Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Fight Night by Miriam Toews

3 reviews

helfire124's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Humorous and heartfelt, a great listen that will have you laugh out loud.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicide, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

bella_cavicchi's review

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

I adored every second of this (and am not ashamed to admit I was crying at the end!). I'm forever drawn to stories that capture the humor and tenderness and magic of living, and perhaps that sounds cheesy, but I promise you this book is anything but. What a treasure.

And noting this here because it made me laugh out loud: my sister claims that any book with a grandparent is a bit like "Chekhov's Grandma"—you know they're going to die! Funny and sad, I tell you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Violence

spaghettireads's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

For starters, I have to say that I am a big fan of Miriam Toews’ writing. I love the way that she writes about ‘normal life’ in a way that is so funny and so heartfelt, and rings so true.

Fight Night is centred around the relationship between Swiv (the 9 year old narrator) and her grandmother. Please don’t let the child narrator turn you off from the book, because I really feel like it’s done well here. The narration feels a bit chaotic at first, but you settle into it, and at the end you feel like you are in on the characters’ inside jokes.

There were so many points in this book that had me laughing out loud, and also points that had me in tears. I loved the references to Toronto, and specifically Toronto sports team fandom.

I felt like sometimes the format of the book being a letter got a bit lost, however I loved the rest of the book so much that I’m willfully passing over that.

I would highly recommend, and I’m happy to see it shortlisted for the Giller this year!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicide