Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

44 reviews

themodelreader's review

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Abandonment, Body shaming, Car accident, Classism, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Infertility, Sexual content, War, Physical abuse, and Racism

elizabethladd's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

saoirsebb's review

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Racism, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Incest, Animal cruelty, Suicide, Sexual assault, Rape, Grief, Child death, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

aprilhinkle's review

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

This book illuminated that the thing that makes women "difficult" is trauma, often inflicted by men, and the pain of trying to navigate that truama in a patriarchal world where you are always an object before you are a person. I was pulled fully into each story and thought I couldn't possibly read the next chapter unless it was about those same characters, but then I'd immediately get sucked into that next story and be fully engrossed all over again. This book exposes a dark, often unexamined place. It does offer some healing stories and hope, although on the whole I would not call this a hopeful book. A couple days after finishing it the taste of the book still lingers. This book is bewitching, for better or for worse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

uolesbian's review

challenging dark emotional slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

anniefwrites's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

I’d never read Roxane Gay’s fiction before, but it’s just as searing as her essays. Every story sucked me in in a way I haven’t quite experienced with a short story collection before, and the discomfort I felt around the women featured in the stories was surely intentional. Her language is straightforward without lacking emotion, and she tackles traumatic and painful events with a brave incisiveness. Not for the faint of heart, but worth a read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Infertility, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and War

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

at_mybookshelf's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

ruthiethetoothie's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

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

emtur007's review

I found the short stories to be very repetitive. Each story circled around similar themes. <Spoiler>most stories had a woman who was in a relationship with a man and either hated him or loved him, despite him being good or bad. Sex is always involved.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Body shaming and Miscarriage