Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, عدنية شبلي

35 reviews

emeliajane97's review

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Violence, Misogyny, Genocide, Sexual violence, Murder, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Islamophobia, War, and Police brutality

diar's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Physical abuse

onthesamepage's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It astonishes me how Shibli manages to paint such a complete picture of life under colonization in such a short book. The prose isn't flowery at all but very straightforward, and yet it packs a punch. The book is split into two parts—the first part deals with a group of Israeli soldiers as they patrol a segment of the desert, and capture (and rape) a young Palestinian woman. The second part follows another Palestinian woman, many years after the rape, who reads about this incident and becomes obsessed with retracing it. Both parts hit hard for different reasons, but I found myself especially affected by the latter one. The character read as neurodivergent to me, and following her in her daily life, with all the restrictions and fears and anxieties imposed upon her by the colonial state, was heartbreaking.

I truly can't recommend this enough, but do check out the content warnings before starting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Genocide, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Rape

aprettybookshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Hate crime, War, Sexual assault, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Colonisation, Kidnapping, and Murder

djbobthegirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Medical content, Torture, Animal death, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Islamophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, and War

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

sudden, abrupt, and utterly devastating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Death, Violence, War, Alcohol, Genocide, Murder, Grief, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Child death, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Torture

bookdragonkatie's review against another edition

challenging sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Colonisation, and Rape

carriedbythecosmos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Child death, Death, and Hate crime

puffy_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

 My first thoughts after I finished reading this was “this is going to sit with me for a while.” Sometimes after you read something, you just need to take the time to sit with and digest what you just read. Just very masterfully and beautifully written. The words just floated off the pages and created such vivid images in my head, and I am someone that very often has trouble visualizing what I am reading. If I was smarter or a more literary inclined person, I would go into more details regarding the parallel we see between the first and second part and how it made me feel and such. It’s one of the books that I almost regret not having a physical copy of that I can annotate and go back to for further analysis. I really don’t have any words, not right now at least. This was a just a phenomenal read. Free Palestine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, War, Sexual assault, Violence, Rape, and Colonisation

ashee1002's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

For it to be a novella around 110 pages I certainly felt it was about 60 pages too long. It was so incredibly repetitive and I feel it would have been more impactful if I wasn't constantly trying to determine if I had already read that section of the story or not as it was the same thing over and over.

I get what the author was trying to do and the premise of the book was interesting but it just kind of fell flat for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, and Rape