Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Паперовий палац by Miranda Cowley Heller

209 reviews

heysherrifredette's review against another edition

Child Sexual Violence and other disturbing reasons

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual violence

Child Sexual Violence

heyyimaki's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

chispita's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

bookedandlizzie's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Grief

lzslistings24's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-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

0.5

My rating has NOTHING to do with the quality of the prose. In fact, the writing was beautiful! However, I HATED this book for the way it depicted childhood abuse (and even r*pe). I was SO uncomfortable for the majority of this book. I sped up the audio speed just to finish it faster, I’m sorry. And the decisions the MC made??? Absolutely not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

jadedjill's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

This book was extremely slow, gross, and triggering in pretty much any way possible. It covers them all. Never been so happy to be done with a book.

carionreading's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Miscarriage, Stalking, and Abandonment

Minor: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

ercabrwll's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Major TW: S.A. (specifically of minors) I don’t love when a book relies on S.A. to drive the narrative, and the end left much to be desired. The actual writing is beautiful; would love to see other works by the author not so heavily intertwined w/assault. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

ajakubison's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

This was a deeply disturbing book and I almost quit. If I were physically reading, it would have been the first DNF of 2025. Anyone with a past with sexual violence, especially in youth, or of manipulation may find this very hard to read. Thankfully, I was listening to it and decided to speed it up and finish it. That said, I don’t feel any better for having finished it. I don’t know what the main character chose in the end. A few things were tied up but many were not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

purpl_pages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

The beauty of this book for me lay in how Heller intertwines the protagonist’s past and her family’s past with the choices she faces today. Perspective is important and provides a lot of depth to her present-day narrative. Despite some responses, I think the main question is less the ending’s ambiguity and more whether the ending is a happy or sad one… as with many real-life choices, I think the answer is both, although to me,  I believe choosing change over the same pattern of unfulfilling marriages her mother experienced seems the more positive option. That perhaps reflects more on the reader's views on marriage, relationships and dreams for life than anything else… 
The pacing did start off a bit slow and the moments of revelation fall slightly short of satisfying so wouldn’t give a higher rating, but I really enjoyed the book overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment