Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

46 reviews

kibiiiariii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

stephward94's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Murder, and Classism

jellyparfum's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

chilu_esquivel08's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

"Su madre la quería un poco menos."

"No era joven ni vieja, pero tenía una edad en que la muerte ya era un hecho posible."

"Pero, ¿qué puede decirse? Sólo que hubo lágrimas."

Fue una mala y buena idea leer este libro en conjunto con El cielo de piedra de N.K. Jemisin. Si Jemisin se metió en mi mente, Arundhati Roy se metió en mi corazón.

Desde antes ya tenía presente que esta novela toca temas sensibles y un tanto fuertes, pero lo que no me esperaba (y hubiera deseado que alguien me lo dijera), es que tuviera una gran cantidad de abuso emocional y verbal en sus páginas; no lo veo como un defecto, sin embargo son temas que me afectan un poco más personalmente y que me recuerdan a algunas cosillas no tan bonitas.

Fuera de eso. Wow.

Debo ser honesta, la pasé mal leyendo esto, pero al mismo tiempo no pude parar de leer; esta historia me absorbió completamente y me marcó bastante. He leído varias reseñas que dicen que la forma en la que está escrita esta novela es bastante confusa y hasta mal hecha, yo la verdad estoy en desacuerdo, personalmente en ningún momento me molestó, la forma metafórica, descriptiva y poética para este tipo de historia es tan... correcta (?).

Como dice el título, esta novela trata sobre las Pequeñas Cosas y cómo estas afectan en las Grandes Cosas; se entrelazan mucho a lo largo de toda la historia, van de aquí a allá y desencadenan en algo a medida que avanza la historia; y lo mismo pasa al revés, las Grandes Cosas afectan a las Pequeñas Cosas y pueden terminar en tragedia.

Ha sido la primera novela que he leído que se desarrolla en India, es interesante ver cómo la colonización y el sistema de castas perduran hasta el día de hoy, creo que es bastante similar a lo que aún ocurre aquí en México, se presenta de una manera muy muy sutil cómo se les da preferencia a ciertas razas y ciertas costumbres mientras se discriminan a otras.

¿Es un buen libro? Sí. ¿Ha sido uno de los mejores que he leído en mi vida? No lo sé, tengo tantos sentimientos entrelazados dentro de mí y necesito procesarlos. ¿Se los recomiendo? Claro que sí, aunque al igual que con La quinta estación, no es un libro para pasar un buen rato, pero de una manera u otra los marcará y les hará ver la historia de India.

Ahora si me permiten, iré a descansar mi corazón, que lo necesito bastante.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

marisacarpico's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.25

Wasn’t connecting with this for most of it, but found the last 15 or so pages incredibly effective. I’ve not liked stream of consciousness for nearly 2 decades at this point and this didn’t change my mind. Lots of repetition here that didn’t work for me. Often found certain imagery effective the first time and rage-inducing 100x in. Probably deliberate on some level, but made this less of a stimulating read than I was hoping.

That said there are certain descriptions that were striking in their beauty or specificity. A description of a house as being like a sunken thing near the end especially made me pause. Mostly, though, the language is in service of a sort of grotesquery, a bluntness about life that’s as impossible to deny away from as what happens here.

I guessed the central family secret incorrectly (though it’s perhaps more accurate to say I placed it in the wrong part of the story), but the eventual reveal is such a powerful mix of both tragedy and cultural/historical specificity. And those last chapters are a big part of what give that central trauma and the surprisingly beautiful note. The books ends on its impact.

I will say, though I still don’t like stream of consciousness from moment to moment, I do think the structure here is astounding. Not just the way it ends, but the whole theater-going section, for instance, or they way things just build and build so that when everything is revealed, it all feels so inevitable, all of it flowing brilliantly from the characters and world Roy has shown us.

Truly, I did not enjoy the act of reading this book almost at all, but I certainly can’t deny the craft.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Incest, Misogyny, Sexual content, Grief, and Murder

mxpringle's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

rcsreads's review against another edition

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

2.5

This is such a Booker Prize book. So unnecessarily wordy and pretentious.
 No-one has ever made sex or food sound so disgusting. Also, none of the gross sex descriptions are actually necessary to the story.
 I mainly kept going because the narrator on the audio book had such a calming voice. 
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

amandahjy's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

Written from the perspective of a pair of 7-8 year old "two egg twins" as they make sense of complex events that take place in their nation and personal lives, so the language can be quite sing songy and humorous at times (I didn't particularly enjoy this). But the book occasionally segments into this beautiful poetry and commentary on post colonialism in India, race, the caste system and the commodification of local culture for tourism.

Pacing of the novel is slow, and the storyline can get quite confusing, as it constantly jumps from when the twins were young children to adults. But I really enjoyed the last third of the book, when the story picks up and we find out what happens to Sophie Mol. 

(Also, the author seems to have an unhealthy obsession with "balls," which I don't get 😅)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

sunny_not's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

It was very dark, brutal and hard hitting. I think that you should be in the mind space to read this to be able to read this since the content warnings list is very long. Also the language was very poetic which was nice most of the time but sometimes it made this quite hard to read. Overall a really important piece of literature but I really wished there wouldn't be incest in this... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

marjolainegenot's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Absolutely beautiful. Emotional. Immersive. Playful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation