Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

7 reviews

hmih's review against another edition

informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Misogyny, Sexism, Rape, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Bullying, Sexual assault, Cancer, and Sexism

Minor: Drug abuse, Death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cancer, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Suicide, Racism, Xenophobia, Bullying, Sexism, Sexual assault, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Death of parent, Classism, Body shaming, Rape, and Gaslighting

cibani's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Eating disorder, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

samburkhouse's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Infidelity, Cancer, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Gaslighting, Medical content, Racism, Suicide, and Death of parent

placebogirl's review

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective

• 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, and Misogyny

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Death of parent

rebeccamm's review

inspiring reflective fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

This book toes the line between wish fulfillment and reality, all keeping the fascinating character of Hillary Rodham at the center.  My only critique is that the real Hillary's lack of nuance and understanding of intersectional feminism is on full display here. At several times in the novel, she brushes past issues of race and feels only minimally remorseful about her ambitions running over women of color. Also, in the version I read, there's only one reference to Latine people and there's a typo. The sentence refers to "Lantinx" people instead of "Latinx" or  "Latine," which I prefer.

None of this was bad enough to take me out of the narrative, but I'd be remiss not to mention it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cancer and Infidelity

ifersinklings's review

emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

 This was an interesting story. It is an alternate history where Hilary didn't marry Bill Clinton. The first 30% of the book seems like it loosely followed their original story (I say loosely because I'm personally not sure of the early history.) Then it all goes off the rails. This is where it threw me off and kind of took me out of the story. There were some dates that weren't accurate to things that happened in real life, and those little things really bothered me. But I think that is a personal issue with alternate history stories. They just don't really work for me. If this book had been 100% fictional and not alternate history, I think it would have been a 5 star book for me. It is definitely worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

kiahsbooks's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. It really gripped me and I listened to pretty much the whole second half in one day! I found it an interesting take on what might have happened if Hillary Rodham had never married Bill Clinton. You definitely don’t need to know a lot about American politics to read this, but if you know some basics about things like the 2016 presidential campaign etc then that could help. Would recommend to anyone who likes biographical fiction stories as this felt almost non-fiction-like even though it definitely wasn’t!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide and Sexual content