Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

34 reviews

theinfinitebookcase's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Child death, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Infertility, and Toxic relationship

ghoul_girl's review

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

stubbornlybookish's review

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Rape, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Racism, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Infertility

chloeschapters's review

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

Has Roxane Gay single-handedly changed my mind on short story collections??? Because d a m n.

Dark, heart-wrenching, and with no lack of trigger warnings, Difficult Women is tough to get to but worthwhile. As always, some stories will resonate more than others, but DAMN IT can Roxane Gay WRITE. I think I maybe need to re-evaluate my approach to reading/engaging with short story collections (maybe they don't all need to come together in the end??? idk).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Racism, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Misogyny, and Miscarriage

learntodream's review

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Violence

willowbrii's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

4.5 | Hard-hitting short story collection. Roxane Gay is a brilliant writer. I went through a roller coaster of emotions while reading this, but I always came back for more. Hard to tell if I enjoyed it as it was very difficult to get through. Nonetheless, I just let the stories take me for ride.

Stories that stuck out to me:
- La Negra Blanca
- Baby Arm
- North Country
- Requiem for a Glass Heart
- Bone Density
- I Am a Knife
- We Are All So Happy Now
- Glass

Heavy content warnings for this collection.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

balladofreadingqueer's review

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

I liked this short story collection. The stories are of varying lengths but it felt like a cohesive collection.

The stories centre around women, who are viewed as difficult by partners, parents, children or society. Often these women are shown not to be reacting to things that have happened in their lives not ‘unnecessarily difficult’.

Many of the stories address themes of sexual and physical abuse and the subsequent impact of that this abuse. Other themes are acceptance, the mundane/everyday and uncertainty.

Some of the stories are difficult to read and have unlikable main characters who you wish would make better choices but this adds to the enjoyment of the stories for me.

Some of my favourite stories were The Sacrifice of Darkness, La Negra Blanca and Glass.

4.5* would recommend

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual violence

booksandcoffeerequired's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Violence

claudianeureads's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Miscarriage, and Kidnapping

copperboom's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse