Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

15 reviews

indiahaze's review against another edition

dark funny 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

4.25

Pleasantly queer, unapologetically weird, and deeply human.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug use, Abandonment, Addiction, Death of parent, and Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty, Stalking, and Cancer

mconant's review against another edition

emotional hopeful

• 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? Yes

4.0

I liked this more than I expected!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse

cmc741's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, and Mental illness

nettles's review against another edition

dark funny sad medium-paced

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

4.5

To my three friends on this app, knowing you I do not recommend this book as a headsup.

You know that meme that's like "I don't stop at women's rights. I also support women's wrongs." Well that's this book 

This book is a trainwreck you can't look away from. People with deep seated trauma coping extremely badly in different and completely disastrous ways.

The prose is witty, sometimes beautiful and sometimes viscerally disgusting. The main relationship is not romantic in the slightest and even somewhat worrying. I had no idea where the book would go.

Oddly leaves off on an anticlimactic ending that I felt I didn't understand. But otherwise very memorable and I love a good psychological analysis of a messed up character 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Suicide, Blood, and Drug use

Minor: Excrement

katierosecrane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is weird as hell. But I loved it. The plot is set up to go in a million different directions and I had to read each word to understand what the hell Greta was saying. 

There were parts where I was confused about where it was going. Those were the parts that were harder to get through. But this book is made for all weirdos out there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Self harm, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Sexual content

hannahgjenson's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

aaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHH this was SO good! So many juicy characters. I loved how the house was basically a character unto itself. So many hilarious and absurd details were built into that house like the bee hive and the bedroom fire pit that had to be tended every three hours or you'd get bombed by smoke. Beagin's writing style was so great- I really appreciated the way she zoomed in on minute details about a person or a place and extrapolated from there through Greta. I am now dying to become a sex therapy transcriptionist and move to Hudson and run around amongst all these crazy, wacky people causing drama. This book did have so many laughs and insane plot lines and devices, but was really centered around deep aching and trauma, and it all just sung together. I found so much of myself in these people living a life largely unlike my own, and that is such a good feeling in a book. What a great read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual content, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty

kotletka_polina's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective fast-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

4.25

Major Saltburn vibes. Unlikeable characters, well-crafted satiric dialogues, dark themes, rich/poor kind of situation. Honestly I can compare these two pieces of art forever because to me they’re practically an adaptations of each other.
Overall, I enjoyed this book but I wish it was more disturbing in an unhinged way. The premise is cool but it’s not as big on the plot as I expected, the side events were more alarming. 
Also, the ending didn’t feel like an actual ending to me because the pace didn’t changed throughout the book. I expected to feel closure of some sort but I only knew it was the end after I read “the end”.
Thought it’d be more eccentric but that’s fine too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Stalking, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Eating disorder, Rape, Addiction, Alcohol, Cancer, and Drug use

finleyfrogreads's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Stalking, Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Excrement, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Addiction, and Child abuse

mothmaul's review against another edition

dark funny tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Animal death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Violence, Death, Drug use, and Gun violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Addiction, Abandonment, Rape, and Grief

Minor: Stalking, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Eating disorder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

billie_churchill's review against another edition

funny reflective medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Mental illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, and Violence

Minor: Miscarriage, Death, Kidnapping, Self harm, Alcohol, Bullying, Grief, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Drug use