Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

10 reviews

wormgirl's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, Classism, Sexual assault, Abortion, War, Infidelity, Suicide, Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Car accident

afternoondreamer's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.75

Wow. What a fantastic book. I loved traveling through the life of the characters and how you get to know what happened in the past. I felt a lot of things while reading. Despite the book being slow paced, I really enjoyed the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Sexism, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

Minor: Addiction and Miscarriage

emmonsannae's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Even down to the last twenty pages, this book wasn’t what I expected. It did move slowly, and I wasn’t especially invested in it until page 350 or so, which is a long wait. But the construction of the book (a novel within a novel) is interesting enough to make up for its slow pace. M.A.’s writing is arresting as well—even when I wasn’t invested in the story I enjoyed her telling of it. And the ending was a gut punch that made the early reading feel like a very worthwhile use of time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

Moderate: Mental illness, Cultural appropriation, Death, Alcohol, Car accident, Classism, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

isabezza's review

challenging informative mysterious slow-paced

2.75

I love Margaret Atwood's writing - this book contains her signature imagination and characterisation, as well as a moral question founded in American history. However, this book requires an active brain so I found it useful to research some of the themes whilst reading (e.g. themes of money, women's roles, the great depression, war, social context.) This is a heavy book with huge twists only revealed at the end, and changes to how readers may interpret the characters. This novel takes a lot of energy to comprehend, involving multiple narratives which take a while to understand and stitch together (Laura Chase's novel, Iris' narrative in the present, and Iris' narrative in the past.) Certainly a slow read and not one I may recommend for enjoyment but I certainly learnt a lot from this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, War, Abortion, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Rape, and Pedophilia

courtneyreadsometimes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Body shaming, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and War

gabriellezenati's review

mysterious relaxing slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Abortion

sophieennis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Grief, Death, Car accident, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Rape, War, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical content, Death of parent, and Abortion

laurenw's review

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Miscarriage, Car accident, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicide, Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism, Terminal illness, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Abortion, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

orlagal's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

readerette's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

I debated what to say in my review of this book. It's an intriguing set of literary devices, to be sure--stories within stories within stories, nonstandard narrator approach, nonlinear flow, interweaving "news articles" into a narrated plot. It takes quite a writer to ensure that those devices don't become cacophonous, and I think Atwood succeeds in that regard.

It's not a happy tale, which has been my experience with Atwood's other works. There is a great deal of depth in each character, and many different ways that depth is achieved. The level of unhappiness feels true to life--believable, if a bit fatiguing as a reader. There are laugh-out-loud funny moments mixed in with commentary on the meaning of life and wisdom of the choices we make. No character is perfect or overly trope-y. 

The pacing was too slow for my taste, and there was too much content that didn't feel like it added anything except length. I believe others might see that as the way the narrator thinks or different characters engage in the world of the narrator, but for me, the excess was just dull.

Overall, I do recommend for anyone who enjoys historical fiction, slow burn mysteries, or reflective characters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Miscarriage

Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Bullying, Body shaming, Car accident, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, and Kidnapping