Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

4 reviews

kyriannaj's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.75

This book felt like the beginning part of a journey, not the whole journey. There's little hope or encouraging parts to hold on to in all the lonely darkness this book deals with. It's clearly an incredibly well researched piece, but with how heavy and dark the content can become, I wish more research was done to show us how to reconnect among this loneliness. Many times I felt it was building to something, or there was the start of a beautiful concept, only to be abruptly cut off and the topic changed leaving the book feeling disjointed. While this isn't the fault of the author's, due to it being written pre-COVID there is no mention of it other than the beginning author's note. Which left the whole book feeling very 'small scale' compared to what the world had just experienced.
The last 100 pages or so were incredibly difficult to read, especially with imagery. It's about Harry Harlow's monkey experiments, which I struggle to understand why they were necessary to include in the first place, at such a graphic level.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Medical content

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Cancer, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Abortion

the non-graphic summary of the study is that Harry Harlow was researching isolation, what it does to those isolated, how those isolated react upon joining a group, and how that group reacts. However as it went on he became more and more sadistic and abusive towards the monkeys. And around 100 pages are spent on this, in detail, with an attempt to humanize and explain what he did

moonbrained's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Sexual violence, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, and Chronic illness

Minor: Child death, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Abandonment, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lowbrowhighart's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Big trigger warning for animal cruelty/torture! Part of the book details Harry Harlow's experiments with Rhesus monkeys. Wish I would've known that before reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Torture, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexism, Hate crime, Death, and Cancer

ce_read's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Torture, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Rape, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide

Minor: Bullying