Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Animal: A Novel by Lisa Taddeo

63 reviews

citybound13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

2.5

This was the hardest to read book I’ve ever encountered and I’ve read some very gruesome and scary books. Be kind to yourself while reading this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Suicide, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Vomit, Miscarriage, Death, Murder, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Dementia, and Death of parent

awhitson's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Rape, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Abortion, and Physical abuse

Very well written. Very dark.

laedyred's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

This is one of the best novels on the effects of generational and sexual trauma I have ever read. This is not a story of redemption or hopeful new beginnings. Joan is an utterly real person, and we see the contradiction and pain living inside her without the fluff of a character built to be a turned-hero. The first half of the book is a stream of consciousness and can drag at times. However, a piece like this is not to entertain. Its goal is not to inform or enlighten. This is an expression of pain taken at face value. Those who have not experienced what Joan describes cannot fully grasp what this text does. Although feminism is a huge motif, the modern interpretation of the "girl boss" is nowhere seen. Joan's rage mimics the violence that builds through oppression and abuse, steering her to act out. She is not a hero, but she is also not an anti-hero. She is a person, she is a woman, she is an expression of those who know.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Drug use, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Misogyny, Abandonment, Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Infertility, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Child abuse, Suicide, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual assault

daniellelikesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Drug use, Pedophilia, and Suicide

yesbethhh92's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

“All my life, all the men taking what they wanted and leaving when it was over.”

Wow wow wow. This was incredible. 

In Animal, Joan flees New York after witnessing a horrible act of violence. From there we follow her to Los Angeles, where she seeks out a woman named Alice for reasons that are slowly uncovered.

Joan reflects back on her life since childhood, recalling her relationship with her parents and a traumatic experience that affected the rest of her life and dictated all her future relationships with women and men. 

This book is about the entitlement, cruelty and entitlement of men, and how this manifests in women as pain, rage and madness.

I could feel the primal rage growing in me as I read this book, and the tension kept building to an emotional and devastating end. 

Lisa Taddeo is a master with words, and I love the way she created parallels between the stories of the different characters. 

I loved this so so so much. I wasn’t sure about it early on, and took some breaks from it because it’s quite slow in the earlier chapters. But once it gets going, it really gets going, and by the end I was crying.

I highly recommend this but check trigger warnings first as there as some graphic parts. 

“It was my father who had driven my mother mad. But once again, mad is not right. The world had set me up to believe that it was women who went mad. It was simply women's pain that manifested as madness.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Murder, Suicide, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

3.0

I don't know how to feel about this book. I resonated with a lot of its themes and assertions about the ceaseless violence men commit against women and the ways our entire inner lives are shaped by the men we're exposed to, and I appreciated Joan's unabashed commitment to voicing the darkest parts of herself. But I found the plot kind of tiring, definitely disturbing, and vaguely performative; it felt a little redundant of other books I've read like it before, like The Girls and Bright Young Women, and it was not an enjoyable read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Sexism, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Gore, Pregnancy, Rape, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug use, Violence, Grief, and Vomit

flowerwineandbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

Unhinged characters, so much female rage, stream of consciousness. Best read in a short space of time. Incredibly challenging with poignant lines. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Rape, Suicide, Death of parent, and Drug use

annabel98's review against another edition

dark sad fast-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

2.5

I couldn't put Animal down. If nothing else, it's gonna grip you. But it just didn't do it for me personally, I do think a lot of that is personal taste, I think the narrator is a little too unreliable, and the really fast paced, short sentences jumped around too much. It's definitely not predictable, but you can see the outline of what is going to be revealed, just not what exactly happened; I wanted either more mystery around Joans past, or more character development from her. 

Please, please read the content warnings, and understand they are very graphic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Rape, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Animal death, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

cheesegirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Blood, Suicide, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual violence

addythebookbat's review

slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment