Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

14 reviews

roonilxwaslib's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol and Emotional abuse

issyd23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Immensely captivating with a disappointing & rushed ending. Gives ‘I Love Dick’ by Chris Kraus energy 3❤️‍🔥

NB Personally disagreed with 90% of the protagonists’ thoughts & actions + her critiques of feminism, consent & cancel culture in a post me too era - but worth reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexism, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Suicide, Stalking, Misogyny, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Racism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Toxic relationship

amanda02143's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Incredible writing.  As an academic, so much of the setting and drama felt eerily accurate. Small town life, department and college politics, energetic new faculty vs the old guard, the changing norms and culture and the accompanying complications. The narrator, too, is very relatable in all her neuroses and flaws. Accomplished, beloved by students, and yet insecure about aging and her appearance while simultaneously hating herself for caring about superficial standards. All of which is to say this book had me fully engrossed....up to a point. SPOILER
 

The sharp plot turn beginning with the lunch date with Vladimir and her "plan" defied credibility.  The lack of planning, for someone whose core identity is a researcher, is completely out of character.  I was cringing, though willing to see where things were headed, until the zip ties and padlock. 

From that point, the last third of the book seemed almost like an entirely different book.  The plot is rushed to a resolution and all of the complexity that was pain-stakingly developed is thrown out with the fire. 

Sid and her partner, Vlad and his wife all work things out and everyone just carries on?? Most implausible of all, even dinosaur professors save to the cloud these days.  Too neat and tidy.

 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcohol, Vomit, and Fatphobia

Will definitely look forward to future work from this author!

adamsbookshelf's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

1.0

Wow this book just hit all the wrong boxes for me. It was so boring and felt condescending.

The first 2/3 of the novel had almost nothing to do with Vladimir and about the MC dealing with her husbands SA accusations. Our MC is kind of an awful human and keeps insisting that she doesn't stand by his actions but proceeds to stand by his actions?? And don't even get me started on when she drugs Vladimir ties him up, gaslights him into believing he wanted to do BDSM and lying about his wife having an affair. He then decides he wants to sleep with our MC for god knows why and plot twist, she no longer wants to sleep with him. Well until she changes her mind and they have the worst described sex I've ever read in a novel. Then the cabin burns down and she stays with her husband and moves to a new place to recover from her burns. In the last chapter she meets with one of the SA victims and it's the quickest character interaction in the novel and almost feels forced.

Overall I did not enjoy the story or the characters and only gave it one star because the cover is hot.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

readwriteknit's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Classism, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

cosycourtney's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Ummm my natural reaction at the end of this was “what the fuck was that?”. Jonas writes so captivatingly and I truly didn’t want to be apart from this book unless I had to be (work, sleep, exercise). I found it so jarring and challenging. I would compare it to This Is Pleasure by Mary Gaskill in the sense that it subverts the female experience in their proximity to sexual assault. I think this concept was so brilliant extrapolated and due to this I was so pissed?? (In a good way). I was really concerned for a while that the opinions that were portrayed in this book were a reflection of the authors but I began to realize it was all intentional—thank god—this being a testament to how brilliant she is. I don’t think any of the characters are redeemable by any measures but I think the exploration of horrible people from the safety of fiction is actually quite fun and it leaves room for you to have some comfort in the fact that it’s make believe (despite knowing deep down people like this really exist). The ending pissed me off but I think the unfortunate impression it leaves the reader with mirrors that of real life but at least in this instance we got some semblance of comeuppance. As I write this review I keep going back to increase the star rating; it started at 3.75 and is now at 4.5. I don’t want to say it was a perfect book but I think something that I can like and loathe so strongly all at once is something quite close to that. If you’ve been thinking about reading this, do it now. Okay I think it actually a 4.75 (subject to change). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

jenniferpalmblad's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, and Eating disorder

savvylit's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

The plot of this novel is delightful. An obsession slowly builds and builds until it explodes into deranged decisions. Well-executed and well-paced.
What I think Jonas does best, however, is characterization.

The narrator of Vladimir remains nameless throughout this novel. This authorial choice seems like the perfect reflection of what we readers come to know about our narrator: she hates herself and also fears being insignificant and forgotten. She's obsessed with nitpicking her aging physical body and 'controlling' her weight. Beyond that painful-to-read self-abasement, she also harshly judges everyone else. Page after page, the narrator insults her students, colleagues, family members, and even strangers. This constant judgment combined with her many escapist fantasies (usually including Vladimir) all add up to paint a portrait of a deeply insecure, discontent, and bitter woman.
And yet, Jonas has managed to make this unlikeable narrator's story both fascinating and sympathetic. I couldn't put it down.

If you're a fan of novels with unhinged/unlikeable female protagonists, you'll enjoy this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, and Body shaming

poppyseedromance's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

0.25

I don’t know how this book was published. I could barely finish it. There were tons of grammatical and continuity errors, the descriptions of everyone were way too sexual, and none of the characters were even a little relatable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

deezy's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Infidelity