Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld

50 reviews

floorw25's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Self harm, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Racism, Incest, Eating disorder, Death, Child death, Suicide, Grief, and Emotional abuse

justsayfit's review

dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This is such a well written but highly traumatic book. It deals with family death, depression, eating disorders, abuse, religion and suicide. It is impossible to say that it is a joy to read. In the beginning, it is almost charming to read the ideas of a young girl and her outlook on the world even while she is trying to deal with the death of her brother which she thinks that she is responsible for. The whole family spirals into depression and she tries so hard to make her sense of it. Because her mother in now anorectic and probably a closet alcoholic who drinks in the Celler, the child somehow thinks that the mother is hiding Jews in the cellar and is giving them the food that she herself is not eating. There numbers of such strange thoughts. The child longs so much for consolation and warmth, that she would do just about anything to get any, but her parents are too distracted with their own sorrow and are a bit too “Protestant” to give warmth. Only work gives solace. So many things occur that made me physically and viscerally ill. In the end, I just wanted it all to be over with and, I guess, that was the goal. The reader has no choice but to totally empathise with the child and agree to the only solution that she could devise. It does not end well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Excrement, Sexual violence, Eating disorder, Antisemitism, Bullying, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Animal cruelty, Child death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Self harm

badmom's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.25

A story of extreme grief told through the eyes of a young, confused, and increasingly unstable person. Some instances of lovely description but on the whole a disconcerting and ultimately distressing examination of a family that cannot put itself back together after a series of tragedies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Incest, and Body shaming

Moderate: Incest, Abandonment, Suicide, Eating disorder, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Excrement

melissaroos's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-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

3.75

The book made me uncomfortable, true to it's title. But I somehow did kind of like it. The writing style sucks you into the book and you do want to know what the characters will do. It's not for the faint of heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Eating disorder, Gore, Grief, Death, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide, Mental illness, Child abuse, Self harm, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Incest

inceptionistbooks's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

“Sadness doesn’t grow, only the space it takes up” 

Well, the title fits. It really isn’t a fun read, please take care and look at the trigger warnings beforehand! I’m not even sure that I got all of them below. 

If you hate questionable characters, this is not a book for you. The characters here are grieving and have found no way of working through that grief in a healthy way. So we see a family breaking further apart (because the issues were there before the loss) and Jas, the narrator, is consumed by her own grief and her own thoughts. It’s so clear that she has so much that she wants to talk about with someone who will hear it but no way of knowing how to or with whom. Her inner monologue has these moments which are almost heart-breaking in their simplicity but clearly show that she is barely holding it together (because she’s a child with no emotional support whatsoever). Her being constipated really is just an analogy for the fact that keeping shit in will just make things worse. Yes, it’s a major thing in the book and it is gross about it, so be aware of that as well. 

I’m very unsure how necessary certain elements were since I have the impression that it would have worked even if they weren’t included. I also wasn’t happy with the ending since it left you just feeling worse with no hope in sight. But I can’t necessary fault the author for going this route. 

This is one of those books that I could analyse to pieces because it is certainly well thought out but I would have to reread it and that won’t happen any time soon. This is HEAVY and I need something fun after this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Excrement, Incest, Animal death, Child abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, Toxic relationship, Death, Eating disorder, and Pedophilia

hotgirleliott's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Incest

erikwmj's review

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Child abuse, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Abortion, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Body shaming, and Ableism

judythedreamer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Self harm, Vomit, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Grief, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Excrement, Incest, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Suicide, Violence, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

ficteon's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

A very, very uncomfortable read. The grossest book I've ever read. Though I think I'm excusing a lot of the gross behavior in it as it's spookymonth and I'm reading it as a horror Halloween book, but it's gross. If I read this in March I'd probably hate it. 
Still it made me keep reading to find out what happens to the child mc. I also get why it was gross in someway, as it is meant to be uncomfortable and traumatic, and it's about what grief does to you if you handle it the wrong way. Though.. why would you ever want your name to be on this book? I wonder why she wrote this. 

It was still interesting, but for it's contents I don't think I can give it higher than a 3, but also not lower as the story did make me invested, and it was a horror read as said before. If you plan on reading this, do it now and not in other months. Or if you love gross books, go ahead, this one is really gross.

Though the Dutch culture, and Christian Dutch culture was fun to read throughout this book as someone who comes from that culture. Lot of recognizable things mostly from my siblings memories. I think my brother is born the same year as the MC. I would've been born around the time of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Grief, and Incest

Moderate: Pedophilia, Cursing, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood

stockholmsara's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Rape, Torture, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Grief, and Gore