Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Paradais by Fernanda Melchor

9 reviews

samwall's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

If you’re looking for a dark, intense, and overwhelming story I recommend this piece.

Fair warning - it is incredibly vile, the characters thoughts and the world that they live in. Do proceed with caution - but if you are a fan of dark books I highly recommend this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Incest

junejunejulyjuly's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Classism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Addiction, Violence, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Stalking, Sexism, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Body shaming, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual violence

syd_the_bookish_kid's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Stalking, Drug abuse, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Racism, Pregnancy, Blood, Ableism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Cursing, Addiction, Bullying, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Fatphobia, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Toxic friendship

sarrna's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Gore, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Bullying, Rape, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Classism, and Child abuse

kia_y_k's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Body shaming, Sexual content, Misogyny, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, and Toxic friendship

veelaughtland's review

challenging dark sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Sexism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Stalking, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Gun violence, Gore, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Body shaming, Blood, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Pregnancy

kaiulanilee's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Violence, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Body shaming

Moderate: Colonisation, Drug use, Racism, Torture, Classism, Blood, and Child abuse

jlebon's review

challenging dark tense 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

3.25

Whilst I did still overall enjoy this book, it is undoubtedly a frustrating read from cover-to-cover. Whether it is Melchor's sprawling sentences and aversion to punctuation, paragraphs or chapters, or the fact that nothing really happens for the first 95% of the book and the narrative climax is condensed into a few, brief, confusing final pages, there are a number of criticisms I have with this book.

This is particularly frustrating in that I think the concept of the text is fantastic, being extremely dark in nature, presenting incel culture through the lens of the two main characters Polo and Franco and the destructive effect this mindset has upon both themselves and the people around them. However, Melchor has to be given plaudits in her nuanced presentation of such issues, cultivating characters that are products of their environment and aspects of society. Nevertheless, I do think that this was elongated to an unnecessary extent with a great portion of the middle of the text going over well-trodden ground. However, I understand how this could also be symbolic of the trapped mindset the protagonist Polo finds himself in.

As a final point, given the huge build-up to the climax of the narrative, I found the ending unsatisfactory in its briefness and confusing nature.

Again, I understand that this is representative of Polo's loss of mind but for the build-up I wanted that bit more.

By no means a bad book but I definitely think it could have been improved in a multitude of aspects.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Rape, Body shaming, Death, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Emotional abuse

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.25

i think i understand what paradais tries to do, but the eventual execution of its ideas was just not it for me. melchor def delves into many aspects of life in mexico - or a particular kind of the country if u will - be it class, sex, colorism and life under gang control. the novel shows a unfiltered, brutal look into the lives of those rarely given such glaring spotlight in books. moreover, once the action gets going, it becomes a thrilling, rollicking ride thats almost impossible to stop.

w/ that said, a lot of the content can be raw, dark and challenging. this isnt a bad thing, esp as it's a necessity in the book, inseparable from the reality of the world depicted. my issue is when coupled w/ the endless droning narrative - or unending descriptions thats bafflingly detailed to the point of being redundant, to be more apt - of the story's first half, it becomes almost unbearable to trudge on and read.

ig melchor's technical and stylistic choice here is supposed to firmly put readers into polo's and franco's heads, providing a rationale or explanation for two main characters' warped views and choices that ultimately result in the tragic ending, but it simply overwhelms the narrative for me. the entire first half's spent describing and explaining both characters' psyches and situations, and imo for a supposed thriller there's too little action that drives the story forward, w/ the characters' actual plotting and action - which is excellent btw - only taking place in the last 20% or so.

considering the book's rating im obvs in the minority here and i do wish i could like it, but this just isnt it for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Rape, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Kidnapping

Minor: Torture