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leitmotiffs's review
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
2.25
I'm hiding the review under spoilers, but please check out the content warnings! If those are triggering to you, definitely do NOT read this book. No other review I've found on this site discusses their presence in the novel.
Good concept. Could've been carried out without sexually abusing 9 out of the 10 female characters found in the book in the span of 2 chapters. What really pissess me of is that the abuse happens in the last third of the book (my e-reader said I was about 76% done with it at that point), is described in pretty graphic ways, and you get no foreshadowing or subtle warning before you get there. The author could have depicted misogyny in the era at the time by discussing the social limitations the students, Catherine and Sophia suffer and face in their lives, as well as how even the greatest men with the noblest intentions keep dismissing their ideas and asking them to shut up when they speak their minds. It would have been just as effective and much less traumatic.
And, before you think I'm a prude, I literally wrote my graduate thesis on Nabokov's Lolita and how the story has been adapted to the big screen. I've read about the topic, and I have no issue with it if the book makes it explicit that it's going to deal with it, and if it serves a purpose that could not be accomplished any other way. Lolita is a story where the very synopsis warns you that it's about sexual abuse, and gives you the choice to opt out of such a story. This book does not. This book uses sexual assault as a plot device, not as a plot. Fuck this book.
Good concept. Could've been carried out without sexually abusing 9 out of the 10 female characters found in the book in the span of 2 chapters. What really pissess me of is that the abuse happens in the last third of the book (my e-reader said I was about 76% done with it at that point), is described in pretty graphic ways, and you get no foreshadowing or subtle warning before you get there. The author could have depicted misogyny in the era at the time by discussing the social limitations the students, Catherine and Sophia suffer and face in their lives, as well as how even the greatest men with the noblest intentions keep dismissing their ideas and asking them to shut up when they speak their minds. It would have been just as effective and much less traumatic.
And, before you think I'm a prude, I literally wrote my graduate thesis on Nabokov's Lolita and how the story has been adapted to the big screen. I've read about the topic, and I have no issue with it if the book makes it explicit that it's going to deal with it, and if it serves a purpose that could not be accomplished any other way. Lolita is a story where the very synopsis warns you that it's about sexual abuse, and gives you the choice to opt out of such a story. This book does not. This book uses sexual assault as a plot device, not as a plot. Fuck this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Rape
leereads93's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse
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