Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Trust by Hernán Díaz

9 reviews

seventhswan's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

This book was the definition of "trust the process" for me. It's not that it didn't get going straight away - there was a clear plot and interesting characters from the start - but I had no idea at all where it was going until midway through the third section, so I spent a lot of time worried that I was trying to understand the intricacies of the stock market for nothing. 

If I'm honest, the first two sections bored me a little and I found myself skim reading. They were clearly excellently crafted and I couldn't fault the characters or plotline at all, it just really wasn't a topic I was interested in. However, I raced through the third and fourth sections in a couple of hours. As the story shifted away from the stock market and focused on Ida and Mildred as characters, I was much more invested. 

This was a book with an extremely long setup, but I think the payoff was just about worth it, even if there wasn't a huge twist in the end as I thought there might be. It was excellent as a work of literature, and I see why it was highly commended, I just personally struggled to get excited by the heavy focus on the economy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, and Cancer

Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Misogyny

dolores153's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-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

4.5

Revelations about 2/3 of the way through the book completely changed meaning of earlier chapters. Started over again at the beginning, and enjoyed recognizing the interplay of the various parts. Unexpectedly delightful analogy with musical progressions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Racism, Death, Toxic relationship, and Terminal illness

Minor: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Cancer, and Classism

appled303's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Classism, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Cancer

leahthebooklover's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

4.0

"Trust" asked me to consider what truth is, and who do I trust to tell me the truth, since truth is subjective based on the bias of the source. The book was nothing like the Gatsby-esque story I was expecting. I'm having a hard time even deciding how to rate this book. On the one hand, it addresses some very important themes; power, wealth, politics, monetization, truth, image, feminism, identity, responsibility and more. On the other hand, the structure of the book was unusual and unsettling. It didn't really make sense until the very end. It's the story of an embarrassingly wealthy financier in the early 20th century. He is well known for his "golden touch" when it comes to successfully investmenting in the stock market, but he and his wife live a very enigmatic and somewhat reclusive life. We hear about them in four separate stories, told from four different perspectives with distinctly different styles. Part one is a novel within the novel, "historical fiction", if you will. The names of the characters are changed, but the story contains enough details that the "real life" inspirations are easily identifiable, and there are enough insinuations and embellishments in the manuscript that the subject of the book, Andrew Bevel, sets out to "right the record". Part two is his rough draft autobiography, and was the least enjoyable and most confusing section of the book. Part three is a memoir by Ida Partenza (also known as Ida Prentice - a word play on apprentice). She is remembering her time as Andrew Bevel's personal secretary. Her sole responsibility is to write his biography, while he oversees, edits, and approves of everything she writes in order to shape the story to his liking. The longer Ida works with him, the more she comes to realize his version of the truth isn't any more real than the story he's trying to to refute (the part one "novel"). Part three was my favorite section of the book, but part four is where all of the dangling threads of the first three sections come together. It's the personal diary of Mildred Bevel - Andrew's wife. In her account, secrets are revealed and questions are answered. Diaz's complex and unusual style was an effective way to tell this story, but I can imagine readers abandoning the book in part two and missing out on the full experience, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism, Cancer, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and Gaslighting

lizzym126's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Mental illness, and Sexism

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Cancer, and Medical content

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Death, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol

hmetwade's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, Terminal illness, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

znvisser's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

The concept of this book is intriguing and even though its form slowed the pace and I didn't enjoy all writing styles equally, I found the execution really clever and the story interesting. I loved the way in which layers were added to bring all kinds of nuance and contradictions to events and characters, building depth into them and their mutual connections. I was especially entertained by the part through Ida's perspective, both its plot and her reflections. Beautifully done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Misogyny, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Cancer

kris386's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Cancer, Gaslighting, and Medical content

Moderate: Death

Minor: Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Alcohol