Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Rends-moi fière by Benoîte Dauvergne, Nicole Dennis-Benn

26 reviews

midnightmarauder's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

Despite the colorful, light-hearted book cover and title, this novel is anything but.

Here Comes the Sun follows Margot, a woman living in the fictional town of River Bank, Jamaica. She lives in a shack with her mother, Delores, sister Thandi, and senile grandmother Merle. By day, she works the front desk of a hotel, but by night, she

doubles as a prostitute

, working to make a better life for both herself and her sister, Thandi. 

Her second occupation is not the only secret she hides, however; she is also in a romantic relationship with a woman named Verdene, the town's pariah. 

What I liked about the novel was that it covered many themes. Some of the main themes covered include colorism, generational trauma/curses, classism, gentrification, and lesbophobia. The central theme in the book seems to be generational curses and the effect it has on people in adulthood. 

Margot was born when Delores was fourteen years old, and

it is implied that she was conceived by rape

. This caused Delores to resent Margot her entire life, never showing her any love or affection. Later, when Margot was in her early teen years, Delores

sold her to men for money. Delores also stated that she did it to "fix her", because Margot had expressed an early attraction to Verdene.

This early trauma leads Margot into hypersexuality as an adult,

thus sprouting her career in prostitution

.

It is implied that Delores went through similar treatment at the hands of her mother, Merle. So, the generational curse continued to be passed down. 

Margot's overall goal is to make it to the top so that she can leave River Bank in the rearview, along with the trauma she faced growing up. But, the things she has to do to get there don't sit well with her, ultimately eating her up so much that she

ends up getting away from River Bank, but at the expense of the ones she loved

. 

Nicole Dennis-Benn did a wonderful job at developing the characters. Authors can sometimes make their protagonists either too flawed or not flawed enough. Nicole found the right mix for each character she created. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. It was heartbreaking, yet kept me continuously flipping to the next page, anticipating what would happen next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Death

Minor: Outing

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

2.0

The cover is deceiving. This is probably one of the most hopeless and depressing books I've ever read. Also highly recommend checking content warnings for this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Alcoholism and Drug use

asphodel04's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Outing, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Genocide, Hate crime, Incest, Excrement, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

solaria's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Trafficking, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Bullying

cheesepuppy's review against another edition

4.5

Multigenerational  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

eleven_hummingbird's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Exploring themes of violence, wealth, and autonomy, Here Comes the Sun follows two sisters and their abusive mother through the slums and resorts of Jamaica. With elegant prose, the characters are brought to life with engaging dialogue and palpable emotions.
Sexual and domestic violence are a paramount theme throughout. Margot's narrative largely follows her struggle to climb above hotel work and prostitution, while also balancing the weight of family and her romantic interest, the latter expanding into a major narrative exploring saphism and homophobia. Most of the female cast have histories of sexual violence, which plays importance throughout.
Wealth, or lackthereof, is another major theme. The impoverished backgrounds of most of the cast is starkly contrasted with the wealth of foreigners and the tourism industry, further split by the overlap of language, class, and skin color.
Impelled to be successful by her mother, who scrapes a living selling trinkets to tourists, Margot passes on most of her earnings towards her sister's education, while Thandi herself struggles to find her own identity and desires.
The conflict of sacrifice and blame between the family ultimately coalesces into an underlying question of autonomy.
A very good debut novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Homophobia

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

joisaddler's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

naoewald's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.25

I feel a little conflicted about this book. One of the main things that threw me off was the fact that the story was so dark. I did not go in expecting it to be lightweight but a lot of the content caught me off guard. I think that it’s a very well written novel. I like how everything came back full circle. What I didn’t really like was the writing and how slow paced it was because every single little thing was being described. Don’t get me started on how unlikable every single character was. And what was that ending ? Overall it was still a solid story but not my favorite at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Pedophilia

mmefish's review against another edition

Just makes me really sad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Rape

sarawithanh's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Trafficking