Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

16 reviews

gasrat's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Medical trauma, Violence, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence

asolis's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm reading classics this month, and I came to this book as a bit of unfinished business. I think I read about 5 pages in high school and not much more. I remember thinking it was strange. 

 I wonder what I would have gotten out of it if I had read it all the way through back then. But reading it now, its richness was a pleasant surprise, and it is well-deserving of Classic status not just due to age but because of its quality. Now, I appreciate the many layers to this book, and the invitation to consider its themes of race, gender, sexuality, power, and conformity. A remarkable exploration of what it's like to be a kind of person society tries to erase. 

By reading it now, I got to connect with the PNW setting, and understand the implications of the various places mentioned. The Native narrator, albeit written by a white man, brings in some exploration of treaties, land rights, and the generational trauma of displacement. This piece is a great companion read to contextualize that aspect of the book: https://commonplace.online/article/ken-kesey-meets-lewis-and-clark/

Many summaries describe Nurse Ratched as the ultimate villain. And while she is the primary adversary, this ignores the whole point that she is only the local arm of the "combine," the societal machine that enforces conformity and compliance. If Professor Umbridge is the evil middle-aged jailer of our (millenial) generation, Nurse Ratched was her literary ancestor. But where the professor is pure evil and as such wholly unsympathetic, the cracks in the nurse's facade, the pain we know shaped her, makes her human. You may not root for her, but at least you understand her.

I felt pain when she was exposed at the end, the gendered violence, but it fit the book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Self harm, Confinement, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Racial slurs, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Sexual violence, Drug use, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Suicide, Cursing, Homophobia, Colonisation, Physical abuse, and Drug abuse

sunflowerhour's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad tense slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Medical trauma, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Outing, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual harassment, Torture, Terminal illness, and Sexual violence

goldenslug's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Racism

Minor: Misogyny, Alcohol, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual assault, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Sexual violence

skeptic_hecate's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Such a heart breaking read, I couldn't help but falling inlove with the characters, even though they are deeply flawed, maybe because of that. 

I believe that this book is especially about sexual repression. Women and men who are demonized by their use of sexuality. It is because of this sexism that no one can be free.

Also, nurse Ratched is properly evil, definitely one of the highlights of the book and one of my favourite villains. I highly recommend this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Violence and Homophobia

Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

shoshin's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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

3.5

Enjoyable, but loses points for racism, ableism, and misogyny. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Ableism, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual content, Self harm, and Sexual violence

foxo_cube's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is, I think, my favourite book of all time.

I will say that it isn't perfect. It's, shall we say, a product of its time: most common-or-garden varieties of discrimination are thrown in casually here and there, and it does make me cringe a little bit at points. Personally, I try not to hold older books to the same standard I'd hold new publications in that regard, but it's worth mentioning as it is a little off-putting.

The main storyline is that of a criminal, McMurphy, entering a psychiatric ward expecting an easier life than what he was experiencing on a work farm, and discovering that he has made a terrible mistake. Being a rebel by nature, he quickly makes it his job to break down the strict and cruel Head Nurse.

The clashes between the staff and McMurphy are great - sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes devastating, often some mix of all those things - but what I love so much about the book is how the patients of the ward have real humanity to them, and the slow but sure change in atmosphere throughout the war between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is written beautifully. McMurphy is a rough, problematic, but undeniably charming character with a gentleness to him we only see through Bromden's eyes, especially when they form a friendship.

This aspect, the platonic love story, is one of my favourite things about the book overall. The way Bromden discusses him, and their conversations, even when they're focused on boosting Bromden's confidence (usually in pretty bawdy fashion), is written with a lovely tenderness. McMurphy is a grey-area character who most definitely manipulates the hell out of a lot of the patience for money and cigarettes, but his growing care towards the people on the ward and rage at the mistreatment they face is, nonetheless, very real.

Bromden is a proudly unreliable narrator who phases in and out of the "fog", as he describes it - seemingly dissociative periods where he exists on autopilot, or flashbacks to his past, or hallucinates. He has spent his time on the ward pretending that he can neither hear nor speak, meaning he gets to be a fly on the wall during private meetings and such due to the staff often using him as a cleaner. He hates the system he's in, the state of the world, and the treatment he faces on the ward, but feels powerless to stop it, meaning that McMurphy is both a godsend and a terrifying presence to him. His character growth is fairly subtle at first, but the end scenes - which are devastating - are a powerful culmination of the book's events: when McMurphy is lobotomised, Bromden performs the most sincere expression of love and respect that he possibly could have.

I've read this book a good few times now, and it's always a total rollercoaster ride of emotions.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Suicide, Ableism, Misogyny, Bullying, Violence, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Racial slurs, Confinement, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cursing, Racism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: War, Sexual assault, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Grief, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

islajackson's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

It was good I think but I hated it 😭😭😭luv chief though

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, and Ableism

lets_book's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, and Body shaming

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

I loved this book. It's late at night and I can't think of much more to say other than WOW. I actually caught the ending on tv a few years ago so I had a vague idea of how it ends but it didn't hit me as hard as reading this book having known and grown attached to the characters.

I was nervous starting this book that it would have racist content, since the aides are black and refered to as the black boys and the main character is Native American named Chief. But other than a few expected outdated terms used I think this book was very respectful to all different kinds of ppl, which surprising considering when it was published.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs