Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Quan les dones eren dracs by Kelly Barnhill

45 reviews

bb_11's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

2.25

"Is it possible for a book to say feminist things yet not be feminist?", was possibly my book clubs best discussion topic after reading this book.  Ultimately, we decided yes it is possible and we have "When Women were Dragons" to thank for it.  This book was all over the place narratively and thematically. Any single issue the author was willing to tackle was burdened by her attempt to tackle 15 other things all at once. This led to a strangely paced, contradictory, and emotionally whiplashing plot. 

 Another sentiment my bookclub shared:  we couldn't wait for the first half of the novel to be over, but then the second half made us miss the first half!  The end of book "climax" completely invalidates the main character's development and obliterates the stakes all at once. 

Would recommend if you want to challenge yourself to critically deconstruct feminish literature and uncover evidence as to why a novel needs more than women>men to say something powerful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Misogyny

Minor: Body horror

gluntv's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

 I feel extremely conflicted on this book… On one hand I really enjoyed it and found Alex’s perspective incredibly relatable and enjoyed how feminist it was. On the other hand, the ending was underwhelming and it felt like the author was trying to go in multiple directions for why women dragoned.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Cancer, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness

wyabook234's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Terminal illness and Medical trauma

Minor: Death and Body horror

savshanae's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

If “Labour” by Paris Paloma was a book, this would be it. To be frank, I was enraged for most of it. I don’t even know if I would really recommend this book to someone, unless they were looking to be so full of feminine outrage they wanted to burst into flames. But if that is what you want, this book is it. 
The writing was emotional and painted vivid pictures (it was also wordy). Sometimes repetitive, but I think it adds to the story by the end. 
The self-expression and ideas that it inspired are challenging and thought provoking, and I really enjoyed that it is written to feel like you are being TOLD a story, someone’s thoughts and life experiences. 
This book made me very angry, made me cry (lots), made me want to stop reading it. But it’s definitely worth the read and the rage. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Bullying, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Minor: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

scarlett_f's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Death, Grief, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Outing

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Biphobia, and Addiction

Minor: Sexual content, Cursing, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Panic attacks/disorders

joayenne's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Infuriating. Overwhelming. Blazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

I've flip flopped a lot on how to review this book.

Initially I thought this book had a lot of promise based on the blurb and positive reviews. However I have mixed feelings now I've finished it.

Overall I did enjoy the read, however the first half was very slow and incredibly repetitive.  It touched on the life of women around the 1950's / 1960's and what they were often subjected to / expected of them.

I found there was nothing around the development of women's right but there was around dragons rights

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I would also have preferred to have learnt a bit more about the dragons, how they felt, more around what they explored and why and

also why a lot chose to return and why at that point in time and why hadn't there been anyone else return from earlier dragonings

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I also felt there was a lot of

suggestion that the knots somehow played a role in keeping Alex from dragoning but it was never explained if that was the case.

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So overall I enjoyed it but felt it was lacking in some areas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Cancer, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

mamaewalk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

Creative, unique, and utterly badass story. Reads like a memoir. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Minor: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders

gabbishy's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Death of parent, Child abuse, Cancer, Abandonment, Grief, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Death, Body horror, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

lady_valhella's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

The societal challenges women face are  so briliantly and ridiculously exposed in this book. Well maybe not exposed. But the analogy of how we don’t talk about all of the issues that affect us because it is indicent or inappropriate to talk about our reproductive health or our desires or our pain. How the society we built prefers to pretend those things don’t exist and yet we persist and defy and thrive. Thank you for writing this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexism

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Chronic illness