Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

6 reviews

robinlovesrain's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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What a beautiful book! I have always loved retellings (even when I don't know the original story very well) and this one was gripping and immersive and impossible to put down. I loved every character (even the hateable ones – give me all the complex, three-dimensional antagonists!) but I especially loved our titular character Kaiykeyi (and I love that she is queer!! Aroace rep!! It will never stop feeling magical to see my experiences as an ace person reflected in media. I feel buoyant every single time.) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Alcohol

silfron's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Classism

Minor: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy

mermaidadjacent's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 32%

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Kaikeyi is raped by her husband in this book and afterward it's never mentioned again. Out of nowhere, her husband is "kind" and "fair" and a "good friend." I understand that it was a different time period with different expectations but I'm not even just saying it's rape because of the age gap or power imbalance - he literally forces her to have sex after she initially resists. I'm baffled as to why this was written into the book if the author wanted to portray the husband as a good person.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault

marioncromb's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional informative fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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An enjoyable read and an accessible introduction to Hindu mythology/the Ramayana epic - the worldbuilding is in some sense the same mental adjustment/ treated as in any fantasy novel, you don't need to know any background beforehand, though it does add extra depth/foreshadowing to know the basic plot points of the Ramayana.

Initially i was worried about reading one of these 'feminist retellings' - there have been many that arent particularly any good, written more because its a bit of a trend.But i had none of those frustrations with this, it was very readable, and felt it had something substantially extra, but also honoring the orginial myth, to offer.

The mechanics of Kaikeyi's magic in the Binding Plane is well done, it adds an additional 'visual' element to her bonds and manipulations. My favourite bits were where she's using those skills politically, juggling lots of people's needs to gain power and help people. She was also flawed enough in a realistic way that it wasnt annoyingly mary sue or being frustratingly dense just to avoid plotholes.

Always nice to see an aroace MC, and also the strong friendships she had with the other wives as well as her husband. I also liked the way the fantasy elements were introduced slowly - at the beginning you can even get the impression that maybe the 'gods' are just religious mortals over-interpreting random occurences or gaslighting people.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, War

Minor: Infertility, Rape, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury

some_random_person_hi's review against another edition

4.25

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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I love when people retell stories in ways that uproot it from the bigoted views from the time it was written. It was kind of slow but even without having previous contact with the Ramayana, the impending sense of doom compelled me to read on and by the last ~80 pages I couldn't put the book down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Violence, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, War, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury

del_moon's review against another edition

5.0

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

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, War