Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

7 reviews

minniepauline's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This is a well-crafted novel and an original coming-of-age story. I really enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child death, Sexual content, Suicide, and Alcohol

Child neglect, underage drinking/drugs

_inge's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

This book gripped me from the second I started it. I really enjoyed the first half; Alva’s story was a great coming of age story, Lu Fang’s story felt less captivating to me, as it didn’t really tell me anything new and was too focused on whether he’d get into a relationship or not. Gradually Lu Fang’s character changed and his story therefore did get more interesting for a while. The writing is quite good too, though sometimes a bit too descriptive for me. Some words got repeated quite a lot too, like ‘squirt of sperm’ or ‘partner’, meaning those words lost their emotional meaning quickly. But still, I initially found this a captivating read. 

Unfortunately, about midway through both Alva and Lu Fang’s storylines got too bleak for me. In the first half there’d be hope for better times, but as both Lu Fang and Alva face traumatic experiences that hope got lost. At certain points it felt like the author was piling on misery to get the story to continue, even though what I’d enjoyed in the first half was the subtle frictions or discussions on identity. How Alva is perceived in her school environment was really interesting to read about, as was seeing how she perceived herself. This got lost in the traumatic events that unfolded in the second half.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexism, Rape, Child death, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Racism, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Car accident, and Physical abuse

baileyanabella's review

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

Not a bad book, just not really my favorite type of story. This is a portrait of two characters lives, a deep look at the intricacies of their personalities. But I didn't find them particularly interesting or relatable characters, so this unfortunately just didn't hit for me. The setting was interesting and not one I've seen much of before so I did have fun with that and it kept me intrigued when the story didn't. Overall just left me feeling sad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Alcoholism, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Self harm, and Animal death

kaddictwithapen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Suicide, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Toxic friendship, Racism, Self harm, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, War, and Violence

gretel7's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I received this from Netgalley.com. 

An okay read, with some very cringe worthy episodes.   I also think it would have helped if I had a better understanding of Chinese history and its people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

trop_de_livres's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Alva is 14-years old, the biracial daughter of an American woman living in Shanghai. When her mother marries a Chinese man, Alva’s teenage rebellion begins in earnest. Told in alternating chapters (Alva/her stepfather), this story spans several decades of recent Chinese history. I found the story fascinating at first and was fully invested until a certain event happened that made me dislike the mother so much that I could no longer enjoy the book. I’m not sure why the author chose to make the mother so abhorrent if she wanted us to care about this family. There is another event involving Alva that is also stomach-churning. If you want to tell a family story you need to have at least one person to root for, and after a while I didn’t even care what happened to Alva. It is a shame, because the writing is extremely good but my stomach is not strong enough to handle these kinds of plot points. I was lent this book from NetGalley and William Morrow in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Alcoholism

veeteegee's review

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This was a book that took a little while to fully grasp my attention, but I found one it did, it wasn’t released until its conclusion. The dual perspectives of Alva and Lu Fang offered a gift in providing two very different tales of longing, disappointments, triumphs, and everything in between set in two very different Chinas with a shared goal of escaping the  norm or the standard route in their own ways. I find myself curious about where their respective stories would continue to converge and divert from one another, especially in relation to their shared link to Sloan. It was definitely not a happy story, but in the sadness Aube Rey Lescure created a tale that was beautiful in its heartbreaks too.  

I am immensely grateful to the publisher for the receipt of this advanced reader’s copy of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, and Self harm

Minor: Xenophobia, Violence, and War