Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

2 reviews

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.

brunonadamas's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense

4.0

An excellent book, very well written. I can’t agree with the concept that it doesn’t make a difference if I still support an artist that has done terrible things. It makes a difference in my life. 

The fact is that there are so many great artist that have made the choice to not do things as a result of their torment. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Misogyny, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Racism, Sexism, and Suicide