Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Watchmen by Alan Moore

10 reviews

scoobygirl93's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Genocide, War, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Death, Gun violence, Police brutality, Rape, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cursing, Child death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Blood, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

steveatwaywords's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-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 ambitious and nearly flawless work has already made history and there is little I want to add here to that: it's complex and tightly-woven with nuanced and genuine characters acting as best they are able. As clumsy and human as they are, their physical and emotional frailties are foremost at focus as they try to do nothing less than every superhero comic: save the world.

Moore's alternate history is (especially today) too too plausible, and the dozens of different readings his characters make of it could as easily be applied to today's news. He details only one of the key differences between universes, however, and that is the step a few individuals make from reading 1930s hero comics to themselves donning vigilante costumes. After that, the political and sociological changes seem relatively inevitable.

And that, as many have argued, offers us a deeper and unsettling look at our affinity for superheroes, the nature of justice and authority and legitimacy, of our collective psychological desperations created by and answered by marketing lifestyles. And, in the truths spoken by Dr. Manhattan, how utterly trivial and uninteresting it all is.

So why not a full 5 stars?  The storytelling and artwork are fine enough, the complete work ambitious enough, its execution almost as much. And it's the almost. As immersive as Watchmen is, there are several moments when readers are thrown out of it, where the authorial crafting is too obviously authorial crafting. I'm thinking of a parallel pirate comic that is read at a newsstand, as a for instance, or chapters where each page is a different scenic moment which all (seemingly coincidentally but cosmically) align in word and concept. They are clever, and calculated . . . and so also first clever and calculated, second impactful as narrative. Moore is too excited to show us what he can do, and that excitement--especially for me--was loud enough to disturb the reading.

A quibble, perhaps, but Moore has gone on to do other works. A mesmerizing standard for graphic novels which follow, Watchmen's imitators in later years still pale.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Rape, War, Death, and Gore

manjal's review

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective fast-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

5.0

THE GREATEST GRAPHIC NOVEL(COMIC BOOK) EVER, A 12 CHAPTER MASTERPIECE THAT REVOLUTIONIZED COMIC BOOKS AND LEFT AN INDELIBLE MARK ON LITERATURE AND MEDIA. ITS INTRICATE PLOT AND MORALLY COMPLEX CHARACTERS EXPLORE THEMES OF HEROISM, IDENTITY, AND MORALITY. ALAN MOORE'S CREATION ELEVATED THE GENRE, INSPIRING A NEW WAVE OF STORYTELLING THAT EMBRACES MATURITY AND MORAL AMBIGUITY. IT'S ABOUT AN ALTERNATE 1980S AMERICA, WHERE RETIRED SUPERHEROES CONFRONT A GLOBAL CONSPIRACY, FUSES GRITTY REALISM WITH FANTASY, PUSHING CREATIVE BOUNDARIES AND INFLUENCING GENERATIONS OF CREATORS. NOT RECOMMENDED TO NEW COMIC BOOK READERS

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, Bullying, Racism, Rape, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Police brutality, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Grief, Domestic abuse, and Hate crime

Minor: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Police brutality, Sexism, Stalking, Drug use, Misogyny, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

amelierawr's review

dark reflective

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

5.0

hard to explain, but it's a masterpiece. The dialogue is amazing and Doctor Manhattan's chapter is one of my all time favorites.
The heavy grief and trauma really gets to you.

For the love of god, before reading look at the damn content warnings!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Rape, Hate crime, Misogyny, Genocide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Racism, Animal death, and Gun violence

Minor: War, Homophobia, and Vomit

raynestorm's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Death, Violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault

noahhare's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Rape, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Gun violence, Gore, Genocide, Emotional abuse, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Death, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Abortion, Body shaming, Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, and War

nojerama's review

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Try to read it in one sitting if possible, my experience was very scattered and therefore I lost a lot of the effect so don’t do what I did. Still an excellent book and a good example of how to write asshole characters who you can still (kinda) root for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

This is 18+ for a reason. Do not give this to a kid. I can’t have that on my conscience

msib129's review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Gore

Moderate: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sulinde's review

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book is mostly interesting for its position within comics history. It's a bleak, brutal book set against a bleak and brutal development of superhero comics into an adult-focused celebration of reactionary fascism. To the author's dismay, it was more influential for encouraging this manner of comics writing than anything else but it was by no means an unimpeachable piece of criticism even without that distasteful legacy. It is an incredibly strange, incredibly violent, incredibly angry book and I don't feel that its merits as a piece of comics craft or as a bleak send-up of the contemporary momentum in superhero comics justify just how unpleasant it is. 

There's a place for grotesque, brutal, depressing stories--I don't feel like Watchmen makes it to that place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Rape and Sexual content

tenten's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

i watched it to make more sense of the HBO series. it was good and i can see why it's a classic. but it was written by a white man in the 80s — not to say that white men in the 80s cannot write or are inherently bad or whatever i just mean, it's a product of its time and creator. it's overly cynical,  quite sexist on occasion, included period-typical homophobia, everyone is white except two side characters. some of the topics introduced are not handled well, which is largely my point because i don't except the average white man in the 80s to really understand some of these things. it's not incredibly clear to me whether some of the writer's own views are expressed through the characters but even so, most of the characters kinda suck, including my fave Dr Manhattan.

but i think that's what makes the story compelling and stand up to the test  of time....or whatever? i think it's not as deep as it was trying to be in some places. but it was good for what it's worth and i can see why it's considered a classic. i definitely prefer it to Moore's other famous work, The Killing Joke — the only good thing to have come out of that was Oracle, then DC went and ruined her by ~curing~ her disability 🙄

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual content, Misogyny, Gore, Gun violence, Confinement, and Blood

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Torture, and Trafficking