Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

6 reviews

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

Wuthering Heights is a stunning, claustrophobic nightmare of a gothic novel that I appreciate more in my 30s than I did in my teens. I went into this with little memory of the plot - the entirety of my recollection of my senior-year English essay on the subject was “everyone’s awful.” But two of my childhood besties were game for an impromptu buddy (re)read, and there is nothing quite like revisiting a book you didn’t understand on your first read and realizing it’s actually more horrifying than you previously understood (as a parent, the generational cycle of abuse and the childhood trauma wrought by severe isolation, confinement and emotional manipulation color the story for me, now). 

Also on this read, I was more interested in the structure and style. The use of two unreliable narrators is so brilliantly done, where Mr. Lockwood’s diary-style narrative depends entirely on an abbreviated version of Nelly Dean’s narrative, which depends entirely on her retelling of events that happened to other people nearly three decades ago. The layers of bias between us and the events of the story create a feeling of always viewing the action through a fun-house mirror, with the melodrama rendered farcical and the broodiness of the characters and the moors deepening into supernatural terror. 

Ultimately, who but an isolated and introverted young woman confined to the English moors, writing under an alias, defying the strictures of her zealous Christian family members could have written a story even her own sister would later caution is maybe too dark? (Charlotte’s posthumous introduction to the novel is overly apologetic and explanatory to a degree that I really dislike, but her note that her sister’s writing was “moorish, and wild, and knotty as a root of heath” is perfectly said). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Death, and Incest

Moderate: Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Racism

Minor: Pregnancy

leeka's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Violence, Cursing, and Toxic relationship

the_pysselfia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

yikes my dude it did not need to be that racist

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexism, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Bullying, Classism, Grief, Incest, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Racial slurs, and Violence

cleanbooksforjess's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.25

I enjoyed this book even though all the characters were awful and the story was quite depressing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol

jennalynn48's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Domestic abuse

courtneyfalling's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was my favorite book for a while in high school, and years later, it's still my favorite classic. It's so melodramatic (I've been jokingly calling it an original soap opera), with a lot of great quotes and open-ended angst. I also feel like it brings up issues of race, gender, childhood, literacy, and property ownership with surprising insight for its time period (though those moments can be jarring on their own). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Blood and Adult/minor relationship