Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Ensaio sobre a cegueira by José Saramago

101 reviews

teawiththefates's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

1.0

This is the absolute bleakest view of humanity and I hated it. As well, I found the stylistic choices made it impossible to read - every page was a wall of text with almost no differentiation to signal who was speaking. The audio version made it more accessible but because of the incredibly dark content, I would never have finished this book if it wasn’t what my book club was reading that month. 
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moonymars's review

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

5.0

 When names, possessions, money, the government, institutions etc. all lose their value, what happens?

In Saramago's "Ensaio sobre a Cegueira" (Blindness) an epidemic of blindness takes over the world. We follow characters that were looked up a mental hospital so their blindness doesn't spread. However, one of the characters never blinds, she never loses her vision and ends up being a witness to the horror that came over the country.

I hate writing big reviews, so overall, this is a great book with good social critiques and a good analysis of the human condition.

book tw: violence, rape (heavy on this one), dead, murder 
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f_zanini's review against another edition

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3.5

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mrsmishler's review against another edition

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

4.0

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othermoony's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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hihayley's review against another edition

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dark tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

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emmastevvenson's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

4.0

Really interesting read, a style which at times was difficult to follow- intimidating blocks of text with few paragraphs and speech broken by commas, but was fine once you get used to it. The story was really intriguing and I enjoyed the idea, some parts felt too deeply explored but on the whole there was a good balance. I enjoyed reading most of this book,
bar the scenes of SA in the middle of the novel.
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diana311's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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silversomber's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful sad slow-paced

5.0

It can take a little adjusting to the lack of quotation marks for speech, but that is one of the only 'faults' I can think of. This is book is beautiful, sad, and a look into humanity at it's core- the darkest parts and the lightest. Reflecting back on it post pandemic gives it new light, seeing how that first sweeping panic and uncertainty gripped the world, and the last impact it can leave.
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jodzy's review against another edition

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

2.25

I really don't like slandering someone's work, especially because Saramago is a Nobel Prize winner, but I really couldn't wait more for this book to be over. Not because it was so gruesome in a good way, that it shook me deeply - it was gruesome in a bad way. 
I listened to the audio book version on Audible (I liked the narrator), therefor I didn't have any experience with the "confusing" writing people are critiquing, so I can't have any say in that. However, I don't quite understand what he was trying to say with this book, I found it rather misanthropic for no good reason. One thing that particularly stood out to me was the way he wrote women characters and his fetishization of extremely disturbing SA scenes, that (in my opinion) brought no real substance to the general story. While reading, it's almost like I felt his enjoyment in writing that.
Overall, I think this book had some good ideas, I liked the concept, but I think the execution could have been done better. I wouldn't recommend this book to others personally, there are other dystopian works that would probably be a more enjoyable (or uncomfortable but valuable) experience. 
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