Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

9 reviews

tabookish's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Murder, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Death, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Vomit, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, and Excrement

jelkebooks's review

dark mysterious 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

4.0

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

 I have been really curious about this book because it has gotten such mixed reactions. I'm very glad to report that I had a great time reading this book. The beginning is a bit slow, but still very captivating. There's just quite a lot of flashbacks, and character's backstory at the start that kind of feel pointless. However, there's this undertone that makes you keep reading because it can't be that all this info was for nothing. I think this book does a great job at that, keeping you curious about what's going on. Therefore this was an incredibly quick read as well.

I quite liked our cast of characters. They were incredibly interesting. All of them were a bit fucked, and not really the best people but such compelling characters to follow, and I think the author did a great job at still making you root for all of them, even the "bad guys". I can't help but say I totally understand all of these characters and their actions, and not to say that the bad guys weren't actually doing bad things (they 100% were, and this book doesn't shy away from how horrific the things they do are) but there's just something about these characters you can't help but be absolutely captivated, and enamoured by.

Plot wise, this book does go a bit over the rails. I honestly thought, the many sudden twists and turns were extremely entertaining, and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire book. I couldn't put it down because I just couldn't wait to figure out what else was going to happen. Although, I do completely understand why other people could be put of by that, as it is truly unhinged at times, and that isn't for everyone. I honestly thought this was a great read, and I'm really glad I decided to pick it up. I'm definitely reading more by this author in the future. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, Homophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Misogyny, Suicide, and Child abuse

There is a scene were the characters get drugged. Roza’s backstory involves discussions of world war 2 and the holocaust.

violetvulptex's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Blood, Drug use, Alcohol, Murder, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Transphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Racism, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Gore

araowl's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Vomit, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Gun violence, Outing, Gaslighting, Excrement, Misogyny, Mental illness, and Child abuse

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

1.0

The book is incredibly superficial and predictable with a central argument that’s pretty ludicrous

towards the end it has An argument that authors only have one great work in them that’s just complete nonsense for actual well read authors to entertain given how many others such as James baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Isabela Allende and more have written so many great books. This and how it doesn’t actually challenge the idea that great art comes from tragedy and instead seems to agree with it is silly. The cast is diverse ethnic wise with a Jewish protagonist, British, Russian and Hungarian characters and entirely female cast except for very minor male characters but the Russian and southern woman are complete stereotypes. And as another reviews noted the only queer women comfortable with their sexuality are murderous psychopath that are obsessive that feels like a bad stereotype alongside the indecisive and anxious bi-curious rivals that are uncomfortable with their sexuality there entire book despite wrestling with that also being a clear theme

 

The main protagonist despite being thirty has a maturity of teenage girl and never seems to take almost maiming even if accidentally another author so she can’t write seriously but we’re expected to treat being ghosted by a friend as remotely a similar grievance especially as she imagines the woman as horrible friend any way but feels entitled to the woman never ending the friendship on terms different from the protagonist. It’s incredibly immature that we’re expected to both sides. Also the only black woman is constantly stereotyped and feels like she’s there to be the clan and collected characters and constantly associated with Africa, and slavery from lion necklace to someone who’s family is from Senegal saying her family came over the trans Atlantic slave trade when that’s African Americans. I genuinely think the majority of her on screen dialogue had the book discussing her in association with Africa or slavery more then anything else or having her awkwardly accuse the other white women reducing her to angry black woman that instead of critiquing racism in white liberal spaces felt the non black author feeling incredibly self conscious about her own black character and almost entirely white cast. 

Also I’ve enjoyed books within books before but while the one here is related to the events in the book it reads like bad historical fiction. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Misogyny, Blood, Vomit, Racism, Genocide, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Death, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Drug use, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Addiction, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Child death, and Child abuse

yuyuv's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Drug use, Homophobia, Rape, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Medical content, Outing, Toxic friendship, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sylvestra's review

dark mysterious tense 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Alcohol, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Gaslighting, Misogyny, and Gun violence

Minor: Toxic friendship

kris386's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Excrement, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse, Antisemitism, Misogyny, and Sexism

savvyrosereads's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Alex is struggling in her personal and professional life when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to attend an exclusive writing retreat hosted by her favorite author...but the invitation may not be all that it seems.

This book has an exceptional premise, and the vibes (winter locked room thriller with an And Then There Were None type plot) were outstanding. I’ve heard so many good things and went into this read extremely excited—especially because it was a BOTM pick and I usually have great luck with their choices.

Unfortunately, this one ultimately fell a *little* flat for me. It wasn’t bad (as evidenced by my 3.5 stars) but I found the plot a bit too unbelievable, and felt like the ending was very out-of-character/didn’t fit with the rest of the story. I also wanted more of a twist or reveal—everything seemed pretty predictable the whole way through.

All of that said, I do want to emphasize that I’ve seen some amazing reviews of this one and you might like it a lot more than I did! And, the writing is generally good and engaging—I’ll definitely still be giving this author a future try for whatever she writes next.

Recommended if you like: locked door mysteries; women’s wrongs; books about books

CW: Kidnapping/confinement; blood/death/violence; toxic friendship/emotional abuse/gaslighting; sexual encounters involving questionable consent

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cultural appropriation, and Slavery