Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Luxúria by Raven Leilani

250 reviews

bookishcookiemonster's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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

When I was reccomend this book, i wasn't given too many details and I'm glad for that.
Where it started and where it ended, not at all what I was expecting. 
I love messy characters and this book is FULL of messy characters. 
Made me reflect on how we really don't know what is happening in the lives of people around us.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Vomit, Police brutality, Abortion, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence and Suicidal thoughts

thenovelmaura's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.0

I knew before I started that I probably wouldn't love this book, simply because it's character-driven literary fiction and that isn't my usual fare (it was a Christmas gift). However, this ended up being particularly hard for me to read because I couldn't find much to appreciate beyond the perspective of a life I'll never live (a black 23-year-old woman in NYC who is in a relationship with a married man). It was well-written in some respects but was also overloaded with metaphors and comparisons that felt unnecessary. I'm all for realism and I don't expect every story to be upbeat and free from struggles or pain or awkwardness; what I couldn't get over was how none of the characters in the story (besides Akila, who is 13) acted logically or said what they actually meant. 

I was interested in the storyline if only because I had no idea why these things were happening and what would come next, so that was compelling in a "can't look away" way. But if the book wasn't so short I probably wouldn't have been able to finish it. This quote sums up Edie's character pretty well: "I almost lose a seat to a woman who gets on at Union Square, but luckily her pregnancy slows her down." If you know you won't be able to force your way through a novel where the main character's primary trait is a blatant disregard for anyone who isn't her, then you should avoid this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Abortion

livimack's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

The book feels like an angsty, pretentious poem, written in the tone of a modern short story - but in a way that heavily resonates with the tone of our generation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, and Abortion

snavehannah's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Suicide, Police brutality, Abortion, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death

itsbumley's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

kaicedcoffee's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Sexual harassment

ulmaridae's review against another edition

"God is not for women, he is for the Fruit. He makes you want and he makes you wicked, and while you sleep he plants a seed in your womb that will be born just to die."

"All the raw materials that are gathered and processed into shadow and light, the pigment drawn from sand and canterbury bells, the carbon black drawn from fire and spread onto slick cave walls. A way is always made to document how we manage to survive. Or in some cases, how we don't. So I've tried to reproduce an inscrutable thing: I've made my own hunger into a practice. Made everyone who passes through my life subject to a close and inappropriate reading that occasionally finds its way, often insufficiently, into paint. And when I am alone with myself, this is what I am waiting for someone to do to me. With merciless, deliberate hands, to put me down onto the canvas so that when I'm gone, there will be a record. Proof that I was here."

Though the subject matter of this book was sad and often uncomfortable, the writing was absolutely breathtaking and almost trance-like. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Grief, and Abortion

evalotteli's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexual content, and Police brutality

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

keeceefd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.0

This one was good. I was grabbed pretty quickly but I did feel like it dragged a bit in the middle. But the character exploration was great. Interesting to see a very modern exploration of being a young black woman. I really liked digging into Edie’s psyche but I wished the author would’ve given a little more about  Rebecca’s reasons for agreeing to opening their marriage and how they came to adopt Akila. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Drug use, Racism, and Abortion

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.75

A complex disaster of a women living her complex disaster of a life 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body shaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Racism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism