Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

1984 by Umberto Eco, Miguel Temprano García, George Orwell, George Orwell

102 reviews

catrinaplace's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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A part of my soul just went missing and oops, I think it was this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Torture, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Acephobia/Arophobia

jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Not gonna lie I want to take my eyeballs out and eat them. This shit was so horrifying I can’t even fathom a world like this. But at the same time I see the similarities on how it is today. Not to that extent but enough. And it’s very scary. I didn’t like the book at all but I get the message and I will never ever be reading anything by this man unless I want to unalive myself. I literally have no happiness currently so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism

tiana_king's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The world building could’ve been done much better but when you get to the last quarter of the book, it’s most interesting. It was all a set up for the author to monologue about human nature, the cyclic nature of society, and the very Voldemort-esque final message of “power for the sake of power”. Despite it being a monologue it’s pretty thought provoking so I still think it was decent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, War

anna26's review against another edition

4.75

dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I hated Winston (the main character) because of the way he talks about and to women (he fantasises about rape and murdering women, etc) but aside from this "character flaw" (wich ultimately represents the way women are treated in this dystopian society, so it's fine) i really liked this book, it's somewhat inspiring but equally terrifying and overall really "entertaining" (as entertaining as a dystopian, terrifying novel can be)!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Torture, Alcohol, War

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Xenophobia

james1star's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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How to summarise my thoughts? Umm… I honestly don’t know! I didn’t necessarily enjoy 1984 but I respected its importance and impact I’d say. In Orwell’s novel we follow Winston Smith who lives in London in a dystopian 1984 where ‘the Party’ and ‘Big Brother’ is always watching you, controlling you, controls the past, present and future. Smith commits thought-crime amongst other things and Yhh I don’t want to explain the plot too much but basically it’s his journey. 

What I did like was the tension and eggarness to read on in how Orwell writes. The world building is continuous and vivid that you can theorise this dystopian world with pretty realistic characters. However, I personally though this detail and repetition of certain events, ideas, ‘facts’ and the like are very tiering and long. This was very apparent in Goldstein’s thesis being plastered into the middle of the book taking up a huge chunk of repetition that is seemingly never-ending that I despised. Why was it so long and drawn out? No thank you! Also, the characters do all lack depth and a likeness so in some sense you don’t care about what happens to them no matter how horrible it is - but then again they do live in a world built on terror and control so to find positivity is hard enough… but Yhh I didn’t warm to them. They’re also kinda annoying but I was still intrigued enough to read on. A LOT of it was also quite confusing with contradictory phrases and stuff I dunno - yes this was good in terms of world building the messed up nature of the society and party but still my brain was a bit whirled up. 

Overall, I didn’t like the story, plot or characters (not really my vibe) and was far too repetitive and long in my opinion. However, it was written mostly well, kept me intrigued and has became a staple due to its importance where many takes and comparisons to ‘our world’ can be made. So a solid 3 starts from me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, Blood, Murder, War

Minor: Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual violence, Classism

toodeadtoread's review against another edition

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Alcohol, War

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Classism

manu_k's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Beautifully horrifying, this book is a ride from start to finish. We know it has been a cornerstone for the dystopian fiction genre, but reading it makes me realize just how much this book has shaped this genre.

On the writing style: I thought it was very beautifully written, descriptive but not very much so, the exact kind of thing I like. The way it was written and the analogies and the non - linear storytelling in some parts came together so well, it was immersive in the best way.

On the story:

the first part was almost boring, which I thought was the point. It showed us how the regime worked, some background to Winston, but didn't actually contribute to advancing the story line as such. The second part was much more fast paced and actually exciting in regards to the advancement of the story, and by far some of the chapters in this part are my favorites. I didn't appreciate the whole 'I love you' debacle in the beginning, but I guess it shows how much sexually and emotionally repressed these people are. I believe it seems very fitting that Julia is introduced as a central character at the start of the second part and her role ends at the end of the second part. The third part was one of the most difficult parts to get through, despite me having experience with reading torture scenes (I read The Surgeon when I was 15, it still haunts me). It was brutal no holds barred kind of writing, with the descriptions, O'Brien's almost - almost - loving teacher like treatment of Winston, and then the change in the way of Winston's thinking, how different it was from the other two parts. The ending was surprising to me, despite knowing that it won't end happily as other dystopian books I have read.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit

mirandajatib's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 35%

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too rapey and slow for my taste

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence

alyssadavis's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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“We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, War

Minor: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent

lilacdaze's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Stalking