Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti

9 reviews

evelikesbooks's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Racism

uhhlexiconic's review

adventurous hopeful reflective 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? Yes

3.25

Essentially a thriller with the tension taken out of it, Advika and the Hollywood Wives is fun, but feels like it could have been so much more.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse

dalenora's review

reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book had a lot of potential and it really hooked me for the first half, but I feel like its depiction of an abusive relationship was a little bit heavy handed and better suited for a thriller. It was hard to believe that a woman in her mid 20s could be so naive that she’d marry a man who was a walking red flag after only 3 months, and I found his controlling behavior borderline comical. I mean cmon, he wouldn’t let her leave the house? Domestic violence is rarely so obvious and easy to spot, and that really cheapened the book. I also felt like we were really building to a HUGE reveal with the film reel, but when we finally got to find out what was on it it was… underwhelming. It felt like far too much was subtext or left unexplained. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Domestic abuse

odorothy's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny and Domestic abuse

laughtrack17's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Racism, Death, Grief, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

daffodilcherry's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

I was absolutely hooked by this book, and read it in two days! This tale is almost a modern Bluebeard retelling, where Advika falls for rich, charming, powerful Julian and is told not to look into his past wives. I liked the clever way the red flags about Julian were woven into the start of the story, and how Advika is presented as a flawed, but understandable protagonist. I loved Advika's friends and the supporting cast! I'd love to see this novel optioned for a movie or limited series! 
Wheelhouses: Hollywood glamour, toxic relationship, Bluebeard retelling, woman uncovering the truth, friends caring for each other, people in their mid 20s still trying to find themselves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Suicide, Racism, Sexual content, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Miscarriage, Drug abuse, and Pregnancy

klinbenson's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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 liked this book much more than other people who wrote reviews. I didn’t find it lighthearted at ALL—the POV character is deeply unhappy, guilty, and grieving for a lot the book. When she falls for a kind of fairytale that ends up being not what it seems, it felt extremely on brand for the kinds of decisions that people make to avoid dealing with their actual problems. I don’t think that Advika is naive. I think she is a young woman, a child of immigrants who hasn’t adhered to the kinds of dreams they want her to have, who is grieving the death of her twin and the ways she feels she could have prevented it, and gets a kind of fairytale meet cute wirh a rich, much older producer. He has charm (even if the reader and her friends see through it,, haven’t we all made this mistake at least once?), money, fame, and he’s doing the thing she desperately wants to do—make movies. I thought the author did a great job of writing from this POV so that the reader often feels as disconcerted as the character herself does.

My favorite part was the way that finding out about her husband’s previous wives not only brought her into her own power, but back into relationship with the people who do actually care about her. The end of the book and the epilogue were a little soap opera-y, but I didn’t mind that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, and Death

Financial abuse isn’t a tag, but it’s extremely graphic throughout the novel

amyeicher's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

babayagaofficial's review against another edition

reflective

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

2.5

Killer premise, clunky prose. The narrative voice doesn't trust the reader's ability to make connections or inferences, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. This needed one or two more editorial passes to cut overly explanatory narration and raise the stakes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Sexism, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Stalking, Abandonment, Racism, Classism, Misogyny, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Addiction, Violence, and Pregnancy

Spoilers:

I was surprised by the mildness of Julian's villainy and the film reel's revelation. Yes, it's all horrible; that said, since 2017 we've learned of such outsized monstrosity from Hollywood bigshots in reality that Julian's actual M.O. and motivation are almost quaint in comparison. They certainly don't live up to such a wonderfully sensational, splashy premise. And narratively, if a premise evokes Bluebeard? Then the husband's big secret has to be bigger than "it turns out he sucks." There should probably be a murder somewhere, at least. (If this were a different book, I might say it's implied that he murdered his second wife, but this book leaves just about nothing unsaid, so I doubt that we're meant to understand that.)