Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

43 reviews

douglasreaddimg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Misogyny, War, Violence, Torture, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

emergencily's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

5.0

A wild ride of a book -  I feel like it scooped my brains out. 

About a North Vietnamese communist mole in the South Vietnamese army during the war, starting with the fall of Saigon and following his migration to America. A really long book but I appreciated its explicit and uncompromising criticism of US imperialism and warmongering. I appreciated the humour and satire in it as well.

Have to warn that while there's graphic war, torture and violence throughout, the SA scene at the end is particularly explicit and terrible to read. Which makes sense, considering its alluded to ominously throughout the book as part of the protag's repressed memories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Sexual violence, and War

kelseyleigh_h's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual content, and Rape

merle98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Great book but I am detracting 0.5 stars for the fact that every single female character in the book is either a food-providing wife/mother, a love interest or sexual partner or being brutally raped/tortured/killed off to advance the male protagonist's plotline (or a mix thereof).  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Gore, Murder, Vomit, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Death of parent, Death, Colonisation, Blood, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Abandonment

hanna_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

 This book was full of dense and confusing prose, it felt like the author was choosing words just to show off his vocabulary and not because they were good descriptions. I found the plot hard to follow, and the dramatic tone shift at the end off putting. I have never shouted “eww!” out loud so many times while reading a book. It was full of unnecessarily graphic depictions of sexual topics, pedophilic fantasies, rape, bestiality/necrophilia (wish I could unread chapter 6), bowel movements, etc that did not add anything to the plot. The only things I liked was learning a bit about the Vietnam war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Excrement, War, Violence, Torture, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, and Murder

claire_the_bookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Death, War, Violence, Torture, Sexual assault, and Murder

kaseyd's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

lessour's review against another edition

challenging dark funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

maramergens's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

I can respect a lot of this book, especially the parts about the Asian American experience, but it was gruesome and sad and not very enjoyable to read. I honestly am confused why reviews have it listed as funny, even as a fan of dark humor I didn’t find anything in this book funny at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Murder, and Gore

leah_alexandra's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

Nearly 5 stars if not for some spoiler content below. The writing is phenomenal. The narrative is gripping and really creates a sense of forward momentum that makes it hard to put the book down. 

This book was 5 stars for me until the scene where the female agent is raped at the end. I fully understand that rape and sexual torture are unfortunately not an uncommon part of military activity, and do not object to depicting that content in books. However, this scene was used as the pivotal event in "helping" the narrator complete his "reeducation," and I am uncomfortable with the use of rape/sexual torture as primarily a device that moves another (male) character's story forward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, Racism, Violence, Murder, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Xenophobia, Child death, and Racial slurs