Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

O Quarto de Giovanni by James Baldwin, Paulo Henriques Britto

43 reviews

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

sad tense medium-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

3.5

though i personally give giovanni's room 3.5 stars, in actuality the book circumvents any ratings, for it is so much bigger than me, is a work of staggering importance wholly unaffected by my opinion of it.

the story has an initially confusing but thereafter thought-provoking structure riddled w/ metaphors and symbolism, important themes of internalized homophobia, identity, self-denial and -hatred and their consequences, and giovanni is a beautiful, lovely character whose tragic fate makes the book all the more devastating (though its ruminations on women still confuse me).

reading this short, dense book took me nearly a week bc it was so much like helplessly waiting for the inevitable trainwreck to happen. will def read more analysis on this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, Abandonment, Homophobia, and Emotional abuse

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

I just finished it and my mind is numb but god this is an absolute masterpiece

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

sukriti's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

omemlette's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

pollyflorence's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

conniebrown's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Homophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

untanglingbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

After months of wanting to read this book I finally did it!!

I need to say that at the beginning I was kinda disappointed because the story was not really moving forward, a lot of irrelevant things were described way too thoroughly and I couldn't really understand David's motives and thoughts. Even though I definitely would have had the time to read the whole book it took me days to read the first part... (But at the end I almost devoured page after page and just couldn't stop reading anymore :D)

With the return of Hella the pace of the story suddenly accelerated a lot and it finally got very interesting. Some thoughts eventually made sense and as a reader I got to understand David's situation a lot better.

Especially David's last meeting with Giovanni was really enlightening and also showed what being gay in these times actually meant for someone like him. In this scene as well as in the following, David and also Giovanni became very elaborate characters and I was very close to shedding tears when Giovanni begged David to stay, but he eventually went with Hella. The ending was quite sad, even though I had known that David and Giovanni wouldn't end up together. I still feel like David developed a lot as a character, so this could lighten my mood a little.

One thing that threw me off throughout the whole book were these misogynistic comments towards Hella or women in general. Back then the times were definitely different from today and Hella also addressed the topic of her role as a woman in society, but this was more or less the only time she was let to raise her voice and the whole topic just left me back a little uncomfortable.

All in all this is a great book and definitely worth reading, even though it takes a while until Baldwin actually gets to the point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Outing, and Transphobia

meenakshisathish's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The first person POV is integral to understanding the story. The hatred you feel for the main character reflects the self-hatred and self-destruction the main character goes through, and the reader is forced to experience it. It becomes a metaphor about toxic-masculinity and internalized homophobia. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

evilespresso's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

tlrjhnlwsn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Emotional abuse