Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Comeback by Ella Berman

39 reviews

jackieyvette's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This was a beautifully written. Heavy topics and a lot of emotional parts throughout.
Everyone in the book is flawed. From Grace to Esme to Dylan to Laurel to the parents and everyone beyond that, but even the flawed are great to read about here. 
I loved Grace and Esme so much they felt like people I knew. Their mother was such a shit mom, but such an interesting character. Laurel was such a great friend but had so many moments where I wanted to shake her and say this isn't right and you know it. Dylan was somehow simultaneously a great and horrible husband. Everyone else sucks. 

I wish Able would have died in that car accident and I wish Emelia was with them when it happened.

Crying score: cry-angle at the ready. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Grief, Self harm, Sexual content, Abandonment, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

honestlymickey's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

Painful story telling; it's hard hitting but beautifully written. 

Grace Turner was once a normal teenager living in London with her family until she was scouted for a movie directed by Able Yorke. Now 22, Grace had lived in LA and living her dreams, all while her public life had been preened with Able at her side, as well as the meticulously created team picked at the beginning of her career. So why did Grace Turner disappear just as her career was about to reach stardom? 

This book was first published on the heels of the #MeToo movement and is a powerful, raw story about the difficulty of being a victim, healing and claiming your truth. It's a captivativating read as Grace is, in herself, a complex character but, it makes it all the more intriguing to live inside Grace's head and feel her pain, her thoughts and explore her understanding of the world around her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

stepnic's review

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Mental illness, Car accident, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Infidelity, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

Minor: Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, and Injury/Injury detail

ivanaestaba's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

wow. this was so raw, visceral but so well written it was difficult to put down but difficult to read at times, i really loved this book. check tw! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual assault

karlisimp's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Great Story that follows the me too movement. Enjoyable but with many twists and turns and truly cements a complicated female character. Worth the read and a can’t put down book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

lollierey's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

3.0

“I’m just saying, I understand that sometimes the worst part of it all is that you lose control of your own story.”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide

mcdermot's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Addiction, Mental illness, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Car accident, Sexual assault, and Drug use

mangomuncher's review

emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, and Addiction

ashleereadsbooks692's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Car accident, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

swanous's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A really difficult but great story about an actress dealing with the trauma of being sexually assaulted by a mentor throughout her childhood career. The pace of the story matches the narrative, starting slow and all over the place and getting more focused and clearer as it reaches a climax at the end. Of course one book can never cover all of the ways a story like this can play out, but I think it did a really interesting and meaningful job at exploring complicated facets of her relationships with many others, her relationship with herself, and the emotional experience. The description of some of the most difficult emotions was really vivid beautiful and eerily relatable at times.

I also thought there were some interesting ties from the beginning of the book to the end. For example when she was struggling most and in the deepest part of her isolation in the beginning, she talks about waking from her parents to Disneyland every day. Later, as she’s grappling with whether or not pretending everything is okay is going to be enough to get her through, she has a conversation about hating the perfect LA weather because “it’s like living in Disneyland” that I think reflects her budding realization that she is going to have to open up more and do something about the abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, and Suicide attempt