Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

27 reviews

mrlsdevos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Misogyny

judah_g's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Misogyny, Mental illness, and Xenophobia

Minor: Genocide

kenzibir's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Heart wrenching and loving. Made me hate and love the story 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Violence

Minor: War and Child abuse

nithya_natalya's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-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

4.0

Trying to read more books by Palestinian authors, and this one showed up on a few lists of recs. I'm not normally a literary fiction fan, so I struggled through this. So much of this book is Yara's inner thoughts, and not a lot of plot. Normally, I would hate that. However, I'm giving it 4 stars though because it made me cry multiple times, and the fact that it brought such strong emotions at me means it was doing something right. I saw myself and my family in Yara's experience. I also am a sucker for storylines involving platonic love, and there was a great friendship in this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Infidelity, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: War, Colonisation, Genocide, and Homophobia

baymax96's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, and Violence

aliireads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective relaxing tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Good book! Very sad and hard to read at times. A little frustrating with Yara’s family and upbringing, but the ending is good. The last 1/3 kind of drags on, but the book was good overall. It covers abuse, spousal abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, depression, anxiety, etc. definitely a heavy book, but it also has some very sweet moments. Everyone deserves a friend like Silas. I would recommend it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Racism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Mental illness, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

vivrao9's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Violence, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

unboxedjack's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

2.5

I really thought I'd enjoy this book more than I did. The premise of a first-generation Palestinian-American woman exploring oppression, intergenerational trauma, and all that comes with that is very much up my alley. Unfortunately, this fell short. Obviously the reader is primed to be sympathetic to the protagonist, Yara, but the character development was incomplete. That was especially clear in how secondary characters were written. They had no depth, with Yara's being pretty minimal at times. Though I did like how Rum painted well-meaning white people as being just as racist with their microaggressive comments, the dialogue and presentation of this (as well as dialogue as a whole) was repetitive, superficial, and unrealistic. There were plenty of opportunities to dive into these themes more deeply rather than creating a fairly obvious and unsatisfying story.  Ultimately, this read like a YA novel rather than something designed for older readers. 2.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexism

Minor: War, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Toxic relationship

taliabasma's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed reading Yara’s journey however, it was so frustrating throughout the whole book, which I’m sure was the author’s intention anyway so in that regards, she was successful at making me feel the frustration that Yara felt as she tried to break free from the chains of her trauma. 

Had I not been reading this for a bookclub, I would’ve stopped ages ago - not because the writing was bad, but because I hate reading anything that isn’t a romance lol

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Racism and Islamophobia

nerp's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely stunning and heartbreaking. It’s such a brilliant study of intergenerational trauma and identity—something many people of color face, but some of which is very distinct to the experience of being Palestinian. Beautiful prose (especially in Yara’s journal) and thoughtful in its approach to its themes. The audiobook is lovely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Misogyny, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Racism and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Violence and Domestic abuse