Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

94 reviews

mcrespo's review

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dark funny reflective tense 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

4.0

so irina female raged too close to the sun, and ended up being a

rapist/murderer

, and unfortunately, no matter how funny she is and how much i relate to her proclivity for pretty men she can boss around, i cannot “support women's rights and wrongs" into liking irina, but she is such a well written character. clark knows how to write a complex female character, and i'm a sucker for an unreliable narrator. clark is funny and witty throughout this novel, however, this book won't be fun unless you are very mindful of the trigger warnings, so keep it cute and check those before you read. this novel also can be definitely insufferable if you can’t get past irina's white woman bullshit loaded with manipulation and forced tears. she's not a likable character, but she sure does go through a lot of the worst parts of the girl experience, and clark does an incredible job touching on important topics such as relationships of abuse, power dynamics differences amongst the sexes, and how social structures shape every aspect of human life down to sexual desire.

Content Warnings

pantslint's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I wouldn't call this an enjoyable read, but it certainly is an engaging one. It's really accessible, with contemporary speech and pop culture references. And it's like watching a catastrophic train wreck happening in slow motion, on a foggy day,

until suddenly you get clocked in the head with a giant camera.

Irina is hilarious and a great unreliable narrator—she had me feeling like I was descending into a k hole with her, questioning her version of reality alongside everyone else around her.
I love how women are written here, how they (and ultimately, we) are both victims and perpetrators of misogyny and the male gaze.

Mom to Irina. Irina to Flo, Sera, and literally everyone else.

I wonder what the fuck I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat, you know? It's like... am I even doing this shit? Have I even fucking done anything?"

Irina's pretty privilege doesn't make her immune to gender based violence (the opposite, actually), but her literal crazy psychotic bitch behavior is just chalked up to 💅 hot girl shit. Men literally don't see her as dangerous in the same way that women find men dangerous.

Lots to ponder from this book—makes me want to explore other books with similar themes that other reviewers mentioned, like My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and Tampa by Alissa Nutting.

Content Warnings

liketheainapple's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I swear I heard that Rachel Sennott audio where she goes, “You’re the murderer! I knew it I knew it! You’re such a bitch! You’re such a fucking bitch!”

Content Warnings

hjb_128's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

gracesvcr's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.5

☆ ☆ 2.5 Stars
(spoiler-ish warning...maybe??)
There was a whole lot going on with this book and then there was a whole lot of nothing in the end. There were multiple times throughout the book where I questioned what the point was and where the point is. Every 2 chapters, I would wonder what the deeper meaning behind all the details were, but I would usually end up with no answers and continue on my questioning. It was difficult for me to sort out where this book was headed but not in the way of intrigue like other thrillers do for me where I am ravenously digging into the book wondering what the next page will entail. Instead, it was more in the ways of, "is this worth my time?" and, "is there a deeper meaning, because I hope there is at the end of all this?"
I felt like I got nothing out of this book and I was supposed to get something from the way that it had structured itself. It seemed like there was going to be this big plot twist or this big message on something. The little scenes and details and characters, they were all supposed to mean something, but they just...kind of didn't. I stress the meaning so much in my review because the book held itself with such importance, but maybe that was just Irina's narcism bleeding through the pages making it out to be bigger than it actually was.

This book was attempting to be something shocking, unseen, taboo, kinky, conforming to a niche group of people, and the like. I won't deny it these titles, but I think the execution was poor. It's almost ironic how similar this book is to Irina's photography business and personality. What it ended up as was a confusing mess with open plot lines and very serious topics (like gender, sex, BDSM, abuse, SA, rape, ect.) left inadequately communicated. I understand trying to touch on taboo topics like having an edgy character that is gay and overly sexual for a female. The thing is, the book really just did too much. Like I think it was trying to touch on every obscure, 'edgy', taboo topic of our generation. What Eliza Clark failed to do was come to a conclusion on all the topics. She touches on them, but she doesn't really form an arch or a story or a resolution with them. The structure and the plot just fell flat in many areas and with little to no resolution on these heavy/more taboo topics, it kind of loses any meaning she was trying to achieve.

The portrayal of the BDSM community and sadism, specifically, was so poorly written. With no aftercare, no communication, and little to no consent, it almost feeds into the stereotypes of BDSM rather than contribute to the community at all. The most important thing about portraying sadism or BDSM in general is the strong use of consent. This book is literally just rape and SA, which can be fine if it is done in the right way. To my understanding from this book, the men are just straight up extremely uncomfortable with Irina sexually, but for some reason, Eliza keeps them going right back to her. I think Eliza was trying to pull this bigmessage about how Irina has 'little to no consequences to her actions' and making it some massive thing that's supposed to elicit a response in the reader. To me, her point just fell flat and just miscommunicates kinky sex.
Also, I understand the main character is supposed to be a sociopath/narcissist that lacks any and all empathy and just wants to just hurt people/self sabotage, but I feel like it could have been written better. It was almost like Eliza Clark was confused on whether to make the sex consensual and then changed her mind middle way through, but kept attempting this ploy throughout the book.

For some of the highlights, the book didn't end up on my DNR list and didn't take me too long to read either. (I did find myself taking multiple breaks b/c the main character is just insufferable but she's supposed to be). Luckily, it also didn't kill my reading streak (which I'm very grateful for). There were a few good prose and quotes in this book, but at the end of the day, I feel like the book was just trying to accomplish too much in which it fell flat with me.

All this to say, I did not absolutely hate the book regardless of the low rating and criticisms that I have of it. I think it was interesting at the end of the day, but the goal of the book just didn't get achieved for me. Also, I just feel like the lines of consent blur a little too much and misunderstandings about taboo sex and sex in general could get misconstrued. But...maybe that was the point so I don't know. This book left me feeling confused.

(if there are any typos, I apologize. I am a stressed/burnt out nursing student just trying to mentally survive and it's 1 am. Thanks for reading <3

Content Warnings

bella_cavicchi's review against another edition

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dark 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

4.0

I found this compulsively readable and incredibly dark.

Content Warnings

kibiiiariii's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Took off 0.25 cus she killed the kitty

Content Warnings

fujo_cat's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad 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

4.25

Full review here: https://fujoreads.tumblr.com/post/744584555725488128/boy-parts-by-eliza-clark

This book gave me a lot to talk about, but if I had to summarise it: this is a deep dive into an exasperated woman’s mind and how trauma can shape your whole thinking. The writing is crude and realistic but jaded and there’s a lot of themes to make us reflect on various issues.

Personally, I love flawed protagonists and cast, so this was a great read for me, even if heavy at times. It’s one of those reads that made me stay a bit too late reading, so definitely a page-turner!

If you don’t enjoy unlikeable characters or crude ways of showing heavy issues, I wouldn’t recommend this. You’ll just have a bad time.

Content Warnings

char_a_lot_te's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

What the actual fuck.

Scalding commentary on the role of art in our society and the current state of the patriarchy. Absolutely repulsive, don't read it unless you're mentally stable.

Content Warnings

kotletka_polina's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

I didn’t hate it but o certainly didn’t like it. There isn’t enough plot and I dislike it when the whole book is about “oh look she’s so edgy and horrible and does disgusting things she should be in jail for” and nothing else.
The main character is insufferable but that’s the whole point. I just wish it was done better, more epic/intense because I wasn’t encouraged to read further.
Overall it was okay but boring to read and in the ending there’s zero conclusion or sort of outcome so you have to like philosophising about content afterwards to make the book make sense.

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