Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Lolita

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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

571 reviews

isa_leh's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark tense 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

Content Warnings

marta_dinis's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark funny reflective tense slow-paced

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Beautifully executed - everything in this novel has a purpose, from the idiotic main character's name to the beautifully poetic writing he uses to describe his most vile thoughts and actions.
This book challenges the reader morally - it makes us question whether we even should enjoy this novel - but that is part of the point. Humbert's Humbert tries to deceive us with his writing the same way he deceives himself into performing the most horrible acts. And yet he can't help but let slip his undeniably pathetic existence and monstrous perversions.
A difficult but important read, a real test to the readers morality.

Content Warnings

eedle_cacleberry's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark sad tense 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

Content Warnings

calwine's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark 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

Content Warnings

luthien13's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Painful, dark, appalling. Evokes emotion and critical thinking about the human condition. Unreliable narrator with similar internal conflicts that parallel other great works like American Psycho.

Content Warnings

zachapunchamf's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional informative tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Poetic and written with intelligence, the former half betters the latter but still proves to be an important read.

Content Warnings

erin_esq's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Hard to swallow. Disgusting behavior. Glad I read it though.

Content Warnings

katrinjorgensen's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really can't rate this, the whole premise of the book was so disturbing I struggled to get through it. I did like parts of the writing in terms of Humberts obvious insanity and the last chapter was choaticly written in a good way! But I'm not sure I ever needed to read this book.

Content Warnings

matcha_cat's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark 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

Content Warnings

katkat222's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Gosh. I don't think I've ever read something so sinister. The foreword and first few pages really frame what you're about to get into, and I knew the premise going in, but that was one nasty narrator. Incredibly skillful on behalf of Nabokov to write convincingly from that unreliable, violent POV.
HH's obsessive thoughts and self-awareness of his actions and psyche were physically sickening to realize. My stomach turned more than once.

So many times, I found myself imagining scenes from Dolores' perspective -- wondering what she would've had to say, what she would've told us. Her suffering is so evident, even if it's only vaguely referenced by HH. I'd call this a horror book, honestly, because 1) We read what HH is telling us directly, 2) we are inside of an abuser's mind, and 3) we can imply that he's leaving things out because his perspective is skewed... so where does that leave us?

The writing in this is admittedly very lyrical, poetic and enjoyable, which became increasingly conflicting and distressing for me. Also, some longer sections and dense digressions in HH's stream-of-consciousness were hard to follow.

Content Warnings

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