Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

23 reviews

manybees's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

Despite its reputation I found it more sad than disturbing. Dolly Haze is probably one of my favourite characters in all of literature. I’m gonna be thinking about this one for a while.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Death of parent, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Trafficking, and Incest

Moderate: Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Confinement, Classism, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Death

Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, and Racial slurs

There is only one abuse scene that could be considered sexually explicit and it is written in such an abstracted and poetic way that it’s almost kinda hard to tell what’s going on. There is also period-typical racism and racial slurs.

gabriella_'s review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

3.0

This is literally one of the worst books I’ve ever read and the fact it’s well written makes me hate it more

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Trafficking, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Self harm, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Body shaming, Sexism, Gaslighting, Incest, Mental illness, Grief, Sexual content, Rape, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, and Emotional abuse

taelights's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I was honestly a bit worried going into this book because I have seen people in the past have bad takes on this book saying it's a love story or that it romanticizes pedophilia or that it's suppose to make you sympathize with a pedophile. But this is also a book that I've always been morbidly curious about and wanted to form my own opinion of so I decided to give it a try. 

Now I honestly think anyone who believes this book romanticizes pedophilia is either 1) fucked up, 2) has not read the book and is making assumptions, or 3) doesn't have an ounce of critical thinking skills and no ability to analyze a book. You can tell that Nabokov doesn't agree with Humbert's character or actions. 

Honestly this book was lowkey kind of a masterpiece. Vladimir Nabokov's writing style is beautiful and this is such a good genius example of an unreliable narrator story. The subject matter was of course disgusting and so many lines made me feel nauseated but it was such an interesting read. I kind of want to read it through again in the future to better analyze the book now that I have a picture of the whole story arch. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual content, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

another_dahlia's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcoholism, Gun violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Car accident

stutee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Stalking, Domestic abuse, Murder, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

dearbhlanoonan's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, and Car accident

lacey_wi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Murder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Incest, Gore, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Death, Child abuse, and Car accident

bubblyfemme's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

5.0

Fist of all, heavy trigger warning: This book is not for the faint of heart, I struggled a lot with parts of it, and if you somehow don’t know the premise of Lolita please check the trigger warnings.

This is one of those books I would never had imagined myself giving a high rating, due to the nature of the content. However, the writing is so poetic and the author is able to masterfully manipulate words to perfectly convey meaning. 

I read this novel under the impression that Nabokov sought to portray to the reader a psychopathic rapists mind. I view this as a character study of a very twisted man who is trying to manipulate the reader, and perhaps himself into believing that he wasn’t ‘that bad’. 

I think having some rudimentary knowledge of the psychological field of the 1950’s is helpful when reading this book, so I’d recommend reading up a little  on Freud, and perhaps Bowlby (who studied in the 60’s after the book was published) as some of his theories could be applied to the characters within the book. I think, despite our narrators hatred for psychoanalysis, analysing H.H makes the book far more interesting, and also highlights many of the books linguistic themes.

Despite the frankly disgusting nature of the book, I was in awe of the writing and I have always been drawn to books with an unreliable narrator. This book is an enigma to me, I hated the content but on the other hand have never spent so long trying to ‘understand’ or analyse a book I was not studying for school. The sheer impact this book has had on me currently warrants the 5 star rating, this may change in future if I re-read it though.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Murder, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Incest, and Kidnapping

Minor: Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Alcoholism

m0rdred_the_fallen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Seré honesto, leí el libro sólo para formarme mi propia opinión sobre el; por lo mismo no lo abandoné, a pesar de que llegó un momento en que pensé "Ugh, aun si estuvieras hablando de una mujer de tu edad, te pediría que pares con el lenguaje tan floreado".
Ahora que lo terminé, puedo decir que entiendo, completamente, porqué es tan controversial pero el lenguaje tan lírico y floreado realmente me molestaron al leerlo. También está el hecho de que, en mi opinión, puedes quitarle un tercio, o hasta dos, del libro y seguiría entendiendose porque HH toma para siempre para hacer cualquier cosa.

Incluso podría centrarse en uno de los viajes a los que HH obliga a Lolita a ir, o el escape de Lolita, o el asesinato de Clare Quilty

 
Personalmente, fue una lectura pesada, entiendo porqué es polémica, pero no empaticé ni con HH y Lolita no tiene ni voz en el libro así que tampoco me apegué mucho a ella. 
El final fue bueno,

por un momento pensé que viviria el resto de sus días impune, atacando otras niñas, así que verlo ir a prisión por asesinato fue un buen giro

también es donde siento que el ritmo fue mucho más llevadero.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence

Minor: Car accident, Cursing, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, and Death of parent

spoookycat's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Rape, Death of parent, Gun violence, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Child death and Car accident