Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

25 reviews

crykea's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring medium-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

5.0

beautifully written! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Terminal illness, Vomit, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture

Adunni is forced to marry an old man (Morufu) at the age of 14. He regularly rapes her in an attempt to get her pregnant and has done this twice before with two other women. Adunni also undergoes a second near-assault with Big Daddy near the end of the novel.

The eating disorder is not an intentional one but rather the continuous mentioning that Adunni is starved by Big Madam. Big Daddy and Adunni's papa are alcoholics Adunni is bullied verbally, emotionally, and physically by Labake and Big Madam. She is bead reguarly and the beatings are described in detail. Big Madam is beaten physically by her husband regularly. There is classism directed at Adunni and the other workers from the rich women in the social club. They mock her English and accent. Adunni's mother dies of a terminal illness offscreen and grieves her throughout. Tia's mother also has a terminal illness that nearly kills her. Adunni's description of Big Madam could be considered fatphobic. There are mentions of excrement (and vomit) in Iya's home when

Iya shoves Adunni in the room to escape her father

and by the end of the novel when Tia asks if the beatings have stopped. There are mentions of pregnancy throughout the book. Adunni is expected to get pregnant with Morufu's baby. She takes a pill to negate pregnancy. Pregnancy is mentioned amongst her friends when she sees them and with her husband's other wives. Khadija is pregnant in the novel and

ends up dying due to complications with birth

. Tia is constantly teased about not having children

and decides she'd like to have children later in the novel after meeting Adunni

. SHe is tortured by some religious leaders under the guise of having a bath to help along the pregnancy. trafficking/slaver:

Adunni is trafficked by Mr. Kola, Iya's brother, when she is trying to run from Morufu. The majority of the novel takes place in this location she has been trafficked to where she works as a servant or 'chainless slave' as Adunni calls it.

ekmook's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Trafficking, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Sexual violence, and Slavery

alwaysburiedinbooks27's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Bullying, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

annaledbetter's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Slavery

Minor: Abortion and Excrement

Wow, what a fantastic read! Heartbreaking but also hopeful, Adunni just keeps getting up after being pushed down. I just had to keep reading to know how things turned out for her!

curatoriallyyours's review

challenging hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I struggled at first with this book - some truly awful things happen to the main character and I had to set it aside until I was feeling mentally stronger. It does get better - even though bad things happen in the second half of the book too, there is a more hopeful feeling once she has allies. There is a plot point in the second half of the book that was annoying to me - her innocence was over-done, in my opinion, when she was trying to work out what happened to Rebecca. Other incidences where she does not understand seem more contextually consistent but I found it hard to believe that she could not put two and two together to work out at least the base level of what had gone on. Even so, the book was compelling and I particularly enjoyed listening to the performance on audiobook, as it really brought life to the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual content, Sexism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Grief, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, and Bullying

digitalnomadgirl's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

5.0

Adored this book. Informative, heart warming and heartbreaking all in equal measure. Felt very observant and poetic but also had a really interesting and distinctive tone of voice. Definitely recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Death of parent, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Infertility, Grief, Death, Bullying, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, and Abortion

lorinew1's review

dark emotional hopeful sad 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

leighannebfd3b's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, and Slavery

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Cursing, and Infertility

veganecurrywurst's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

becksreading's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book was so beautifully heartbreaking but hopeful at the same time. The realities shown in this story are so harrowing to western readers, but I loved that we see her get to a certain point and can imagine from there how her life flourishes. Stunning work, and will be reading from this author again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Slavery, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

For all the truly tragic things that happen in this book, it really does build to a hopeful ending. That said, it is graphic and could be shocking to readers who are unprepared.