Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh

8 reviews

renzo's review

Triggers for SA and vulgarity 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Sexism, Self harm, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

vivica's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

3.0

I wanted to give this book 2 stars, but the very last story broke my heart to pieces, and it's for these emotions that I give this book 3 stars. However it if far from perfect - the author writes like a man who read a little bit too much of Bukowski's prose and let it get into his head. To say the least.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Ableism

Moderate: Body shaming, Blood, Addiction, Alcohol, Misogyny, Grief, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Drug use, Death, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Vomit

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Rape, Alcoholism, Cursing, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Excrement, and Misogyny

emory's review

challenging dark medium-paced

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

2.25

When I was reading the second story in this collection and the protagonist started thinking about sexual acts involving swimming in sewage, and then further details the acts this character performs on a young sex worker, I was going to stop reading, despite my aversion to not finishing books. I wish I had. 

I was puzzled reading this about all the positive reviews I had seen of it. Every story seemed a pointless excuse for Moshfegh to describe something disgusting, insult a random fat side character, and call somebody r*tarded. A few of the later stories, such as Slumming, The Beach Boy, and A Better Place were (comparatively) charming and driven, but the abrupt endings in the latter of these two were discouraging.

The only saving grace I could find for these stories was that Moshfegh is clearly creative in thinking of vignettes of different shades of upsetting people. However, I don't feel as if her writing was strong enough to carry them. Each sentence was short and blunt. The simple sentences lent themselves to the subject matter I suppose, but it was not an artful or particularly nice reading experience. It read more like the begrudging English assignment of a super senior than that of a critically acclaimed author. Not to mention none of her characters were distinguishable from one another. All spoke with the same voice. The most discription anything received were fat characters that Moshfegh seemed to delight in calling disgusting and horrible. And anytime someone from a minority was mentioned, there was some weird aside that the narrator needed to have.

The idea of challenging what the purpose of fiction is and the role of a main character is an intriguing prospect, and this, along with the few stories that stood out to me as genuine, are the reason I'm giving this a higher rating than 0 or 1. But there's no skill or point behind it, to me, other than to shock and disgust. Most of these stories had nothing to say. To make something realistic in its unappetizing circumstances means nothing when you're doing the same trick over and over again. "It's so bad here, what if there were something better? Well, there's not." Cool! 

And unfortunately there's not even a single story that's about aliens. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Excrement, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Vomit, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, and Death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Animal death, Antisemitism, and Sexual assault

Unbelievably terrible descriptions of fat people throughout for no reason. Additionally any time a main character meets a person who is not white or straight, they are very weird about it.

parton4proletariat's review

this is my third (and honestly, final) attempt at trying to enjoy moshfegh. genuinely do not understand the hype around her work. having characters be horribly racist, ableist, and fatphobic is a low-effort way to make them unlikeable. instead of actually developing these characters, moshfegh just throws in a slur and calls it a day. and it is such a constant theme that it's hard not to assume these are the author's own biases. 

as for the writing, most of it is incredibly dull and gross for the sake of being gross. i did enjoy the writing in the book more than her other works, but all of the characters felt pretty much the same. I love unlikeable characters and gothic-leaning books, but moshfegh just fails to deliver.  cool cover, though.

the vulture article says it best. what the hell is it with her and donuts? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Fatphobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Violence

theminimalistbookclub's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

2.0

are you kidding me? do i want to read about perverts? about disgusting men who rape, stalk and despise woman? about cheating husbands (and about cheating wives tho')? no. this book really pisses me off, it makes me angry, it haunts me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Stalking, Fatphobia, Suicide, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Vomit

jordannikol's review

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Ableism, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Stalking, and Toxic relationship