Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

6 reviews

inlibrisveritas's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

If you're going into this looking for an answer on how to deal with the monsters in our media, you won't find one. This is very much a personal look at how the author views and deals with it, and how as a collective it's not an easy answer to form. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Self harm, Pedophilia, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Addiction

hduc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book deals with monstrous people. Of course there will be disturbing stories. But fear not, take one or two pages at a time. You would come out of this book a heart lighter.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Pedophilia, Self harm, Child abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Racism, Toxic relationship, War, Violence, Sexism, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Genocide, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

chelseadoherty's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Incest, Sexual assault, Addiction, Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Drug abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, Mass/school shootings, Pandemic/Epidemic, Misogyny, and Suicide

tvishashah's review against another edition

reflective

A very good book that doesn't tell you what to think. Claire nudges you in multiple directions throughout the book, but ultimately settles on a concept instead of a definitive answer in the end. Her struggles resonated with mine.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Rape, Antisemitism, and Alcoholism

jainabee's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I am so glad this book exists because I NEEDED it. It needed to exist in the world. The question of how to balance fandom of my favorite works of creativity with the toxic and destructive behaviors of the creators is an issue that torments me. Dederer directly addresses some of my own pet monsters; Woody Allen, David Bowie, JK Rowling, Miles Davis. This book makes me think a LOT. This book is very uncomfortable in a vitally important way. This book challenges me in ways I needed. The chapter comparing and contrasting Valerie Solanas and Sylvia Plath (!!!!!) flipped my wig with the brilliance of unexpected insights about how women respond to the violence of misogyny. The chapter about Lolita is a sparkling gem of brilliant insight and analysis that might be the best review of it I've ever read (spoiler alert: Nabokov is not a monster, though he is a genius). This book is FULL of triggering content, as it describes the crimes of the creators. No way around that. The point of the book seems to be to face the monsters directly and feel the extremely uncomfortable dilemma between loving something, even the monster, "even after everything." I got a lot to think about here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Rape, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Child abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Abandonment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Pedophilia, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Racism, Mental illness, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Classism, Drug abuse, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Racism, War, Xenophobia, Genocide, and Hate crime

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Fire/Fire injury

I need to read this book again. And probably again.

aqtbenz's review against another edition

Not what I thought this was going to be

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Self harm, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Suicide