Reviews tagging 'Rape'

A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride

61 reviews

milakastenbaum's review against another edition

reflective sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Rape, Incest, and Cancer

miles's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Ableism and Excrement

teawitch's review against another edition

too depressing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

 With A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing it was the unique sentence structure. It’s fragmentary, experimental, stream-of—consciousness, as if you are only hearing half a conversation or getting partial thoughts in a jumbled order. It could have been confusing and a deal-breaker, especially when none of the characters are named. But for me it worked. I soon settled in to its rhythms and found it especially effective in vividly portraying strong emotions like grief and rage. The content of this story is a challenge in its own right, including cancer, an abusive parent, rape, grief, unhealthy sexual behaviours, negative impacts of religion, and suicide. I found this book to be memorable and expect it to stick with me for a long while.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide

amberinbookland's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Bullying, Ableism, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Medical content, Death, Violence, Terminal illness, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Grief, Incest, Cursing, and Blood

alma's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death, and Grief

tabitha_isabelle's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

richthegreat's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Okay, wow. Firstly the book is insanely well written, think stream of consciousness in Irish. It is quite a challenge and I think Eimear is clearly a gifted writer. 
I love stream of consciousness writing, and for me this book did not disappoint, her writing is absolutely stunning, but you have to like that sort of thing. If you can't manage Woolf, or Joyce then don't bother here, as McBride is even more.
That is where my praise ends, this book is pure violence and I would have never read it had I known. There is so much rape, and hate and incest and trauma. The book is trauma, only read it if you are prepared. I have nothing to say that is positive about the plot it is essentially just trauma being passively and actively inflicted on the main character, by herself, others and the catholic church.

For me I can't separate the content from the stunning prose, I found the book so triggering and upsetting that no amount of excellent writing can make up for it. I cannot emphasise enough that you MUST be extremely careful if you undertake to read this book.

Personally if I never read another book about a person getting abused and then engaging in horrendous self hate I will be just fine. I know this stuff happens, and I understand the human capacity to inflict pain on ourselves and others, but I can't read about it anymore, not on this scale. 
I am happy to be challenged on my view of this, I appreciate as a man I may not understand the full authenticity of the lead characters emotions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Rape, Self harm, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Grief, and Incest

dimanabookmark's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• 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: Cancer, Rape, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicide, and Vomit

stella_nutella's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide and Terminal illness