Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Great Circle

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

98 reviews

ms_gouldbourne's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

Phew, it took me a while to get through this one! Maggie Shipstead's epic Great Circle is an absolutely masterpiece of narrative and research, with some stunning prose and an incredible level of detail throughout. It's long, but I definitely found myself excited to pick it up each evening to find out what was next for these complex and mostly tragic characters.

I did find it interesting to note that several reviewers gave up before the 20% mark, because the beginning was definitely the weakest part of the novel for me. I didn't particularly enjoy Shipstead's depiction of female sexuality, with multiple assaults and rapes happening within the first few chapters. However, I persisted, and ultimately I'm glad I did.

Great Circle tells the story from birth to death of female pilot Marian Graves, from her early disastrous marriage to gangster Barclay Mcqueen to her final flight attempting to circumnavigate the globe in the 1950s. This covers about 80% of the novel, but it's interspersed with chapters told from the modern-day perspective of troubled actress Hadley, who has been cast as Marian in a biopic about her life.

Like other reviewers, I didn't feel that Hadley's perspective added much to the novel, except for a few interesting juxtapositions between the truth of Marian's life and the warped way it had been interpreted for the modern-day film. I found Hadley's voice irritating for the most part! However, I have to admit that Marian wasn't much better. Although I absolutely loved the writing and the flow of the narrative, I found most of Shipstead's characters fairly annoying.

It may be that this style of novel just isn't for me; I don't tend to enjoy deeply tragic stories in which a group of tragic characters are depicted following tragic narratives and coming to tragic ends. It feels very literary and beautiful, but ultimately I prefer a happy ending. However, Maggie Shipstead is undoubtedly a wonderful writer, so I would read her again.

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beatriks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious reflective medium-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

5.0

Loved this book so much.
I‘m pretty sure this will be on top of my List for 2023.

The story is everything I want, characters are so complex and well-explained, the plot is so carefully planned and built up.

The writing is superb. There is no book so far with so many highlighted sentences and passages.

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janelleaimi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative reflective sad slow-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

4.5

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lols_cat's review against another edition

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adventurous informative inspiring reflective sad medium-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

4.75

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heatherilene's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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honeybeeville's review against another edition

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I don’t think was able to include all the triggers I encountered in the first 17% of the book that I did finish. I’m including some specifics below behind spoilers. It’s really unfortunate the directions this book ends up going as the premise is very interesting and could have been explored in a different way.

I had to stop when the book seemed to sexualize a child along with other issues. Very early on, child sexual abuse and the resulting effects of this trauma are described in some detail. I’m not sure why this needed to be included outside of creating a sense of difficulty around the birth of one of the main characters. I persevered after this though it did not feel like it was handled well. Then we come to the main character who is 12 or 13 and being described as very interested in sexual activity to the point of masturbartion being mentioned with an adult man being referenced. That is a hard no for me. Nearly immediately after, a side character/story were mentioned that felt unrelated and also did not seem to be handled well by the author.

After this, I didn’t care what happened next. There was no way I was reading further.

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toothpastefairy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

Screaming, crying, and throwing-up throughout.

Marian is someone who you desperately want to hug and throttle at the same time. Devastating and heartwarming, the novel's end is poignantly built in a way you could not predict from the start. Each character is crafted with care and depth, their lives reach across the pages to brush each other and arrest the reader's heart.

Overall, brutal and tender.

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