Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar

18 reviews

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

emotional reflective

4.25

This memoir covers many parts of the author's life, going from moments during her travel, to her childhood, to her relationships as an adult. She weaves them together, discussing pain and violence from these different parts of her life, but also pleasure and healing. 

She speaks candidly about racism and fatphobia that she experiences from stragers, but also violence from her parents as a child and partners as an adult. The violence of a homeland she can no longer visit and of a home that was too hostile to return to. She also speaks of the relationships  and small interactions that have facilitated he healing, from the kindness of strangers to reconciliation, to entering the world of kink. 

This was well-written and engaging. I listened to the audiobook over the course of just a couple of days.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexism, Racism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Abortion

Explicit discussion of kink and BDSM

alainajreads's review against another edition

Perhaps I should’ve heeded the trigger warnings and read the reviews before jumping into this, but I was expecting something totally different based on the synopsis. Rather than a travelogue,  the writing was a bit disjointed and dealt with themes that, while important to discuss, were more traumatic than I was expecting. I enjoyed the first few chapters and Jarrar had some interesting insights about being Arab in America and I wished there were more about her cross-country road trip. Not bad, just not for me and not what I was expecting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Islamophobia, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Vomit

Moderate: Racism, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma

nightlight_reader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

3.75

Warning: this book is quite horny and I would not recommend listening to it at work.

I love how open Jarrar is about her life and her relationship with her parents and her cultures. I also think I gained a much better understanding of BDSM culture from this book, which I definitely wasn’t expecting. This was great in an audiobook format, although a few chapters will probably just read better in normal book form based on format and structure of the stories. (If you’ve read it, you can probably guess which one.)

I’d really like to read more about her relationship with her son in the future, I think, because it seems like a relationship full of love but also with strain. She talks a lot about her past but I’d like to hear her thoughts on the future, too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Medical trauma, and Xenophobia

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Eating disorder

speedofhuman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Fatphobia, Bullying, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Sexism, Islamophobia, Sexual violence, and Racism

Minor: War, Pedophilia, and Police brutality

kleinekita's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

emoryscott's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

2.75

I really wanted to like this book. I love memoirs and the jacket summary was intriguing. However, this author’s style is not for me. If you enjoy quippy, erratic narration, you’ll love this. I felt like the journey across the country could have been more clearly defined. I felt like I never knew which era of her life she was speaking about. I know this is some people’s favorite type of writing, but it just wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Child abuse, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Antisemitism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child death, Colonisation, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Fatphobia, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Genocide, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

Also, at times, it really seemed like the author was glorifying trauma and abuse. It was definitely a bit difficult to read as a survivor, but I can see how someone else may find this empowering.

yazzy_annalise's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

I wasn't really sure if I was going to like this book, but once I got used to the writing style being more like essays. I loved it. I found a lot of my own journey in this book, and not all of those realizations were pleasant, but I hope to one day get to a similar healed and self-loved point that the author reaches

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Sexual content

cpskee's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-paced

4.0

A story about home/exile and not feeling like you belong - navigating ethnicities, abuse, racism, sexuality. Beautiful writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Sexual violence

Moderate: Racism

dianavdavidson_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Islamophobia and Xenophobia

sbooksbowm's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Spellbinding 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse