Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

84 reviews

elisanisly's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, Rape, Murder, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual content, Sexism, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Stalking, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Child death

emily_adams_98's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Found it surprisingly engrossing and easy to submerge myself into the protagonist’s mind. Beautifully written, often had to reread passages i had skimmed over in order to fully appreciate the poetry of the descriptions. Thought it was interesting how the protagonist was simultaneously aware of the perversity of his actions and seemed convinced of his own ability to reason it away.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Kidnapping, Self harm, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

cal_bert's review against another edition

I couldn't bring myself to read anymore, it made me want to throw up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Pedophilia

bill369'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

3.75

I and my dear friend have read Lolita together.

I don't have a favourite character and I suppose it wasn't the author's intention for the reader to like the main characters. He did that well. I do dislike both Humbert Humbert and Dollores.

For me, this book was rather boring. Sure the plot was interesting in a way however not gripping enough. Reading this book even felt like a chore at a time. Except for the marvellous writing, there's nothing to highlight. And for the writing and the writing only, this book gets the rating it gets.

Page 300, made up predestined destiny.

 

I have often noticed that we are inclined to endow our friends with the stability of type that literary characters acquire in the reader’s mind. No matter how many times we reopen “King Lear,” never shall we find the good king banging his tankard in high revelry, all woes forgotten, at a jolly reunion with all three daughters and their lapdogs. Never will Emma rally, revived by the sympathetic salts in Flaubert’s father’s timely tear. Whatever evolution this or that popular character has gone through between the book covers, his fate is fixed in our minds, and, similarly, we expect our friends to follow this or that logical and conventional pattern we have fixed for them. Thus X will never compose the immortal music that would clash with the second-rate symphonies he has accustomed us to. Y will never commit murder. Under no circumstances can Z ever betray us. We have it all arranged in our minds, and the less often we see a particular person the more satisfying it is to check how obediently he conforms to our notion of him every time we hear of him. Any deviation in the fates we have ordained would strike us as not only anomalous but unethical. We would prefer not to have known at all our neighbour, the retired hot-dog stand operator, if it turns out he has just produced the greatest book of poetry his age has seen.

 

The end of the book was one of the better parts. I did enjoy it.

Overall, I'm glad I read the book. The writing is amazing despite the story being unappealing to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Body shaming and Sexism

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Car accident, Child death, and Pregnancy

eimear_jane's review against another edition

dark sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Trafficking

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.

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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

laurapeirs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Incest, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical content, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Pedophilia

Minor: Violence and Sexual violence

America, diary, crime, incest, toxic relationship

coffeaiene's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual content

e_hng's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pregnancy, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Alcohol

directorpurry's review against another edition

dark reflective sad 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

4.0

CW: There are so many in this bad boy... Pedophilia and victim blaming, mostly, but also SO MUCH statutory rape, Spoilerdeath of a parent, kidnapping, description of a corpse, stalking.
Updated 2020 rating: 3.5 stars

This is one of a short list of books where I can understand why some school districts and governments choose to ban it. While I find the writing to be absolutely amazing, at times almost breathtaking, the contents contained are questionable at best, atrocious at worst.
At times, Lolita is a book that can feel necessary to defend the reasons why you like it. I'll do my best to explain here:

Not to knock down the high-brow element of my review, but there's a Tumblr joke that has made the rounds about how the opposite of a "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" (usually a film trope character) is a "Depressed Goblin Nightmare Man" and how that is often a trope character of literature.
Not only that, it's often a popular trope character. (I'm looking at you, Erik, from The Phantom of the Opera.) Humbert Humbert is absolutely a "Depressed Goblin Nightmare Man" (DGNM from here on out).
He has combination of what it takes to make a DGNM, such as the cocky attitude. While HH spends most of the book degrading himself as "weak" or non-confrontational, he also spends the majority of the book strutting around like Lolita owes herself to him. Whenever she does something he doesn't like, he emotionally manipulates her into sleeping with him or forgiving him. HH also constantly blames his victims, these "Nymphets," who have done nothing more than behave like themselves, children who have no concept of the way he watches, stalks, and harasses many of them. Although he says he knows what he's doing wrong, HH ultimately places the blame on everyone but himself.

And Nabokov clearly knows what he's doing.
I've often noticed that many writers of "high" literature explore taboo topics far, far past the bounds of normalcy or even understanding. But it takes both an excellent writer and a committed reader to see past the surface topic to find the commentary underneath. Which isn't to say I blame anyone who hates or chooses not to even attempt this book because of the topic - I absolutely understand why people would want to chuck this book off a cliff.
But when I read it, I can see Nabokov's sarcastic attitude behind the words, the way he twists HH's own words against him as a narrator, making him at once unreliable and perfectly believable in his earnestness.
Lolita is clearly a girl suffering intense distress from her, at times, neglectful mother to her constant abuse and rape at the hands of HH. She shows many signs of abused children, from hiding food and money to her acting out in school and losing interest in hobbies.
There are many marks of Nabokov's deep involvement with these characters. I love the way he wrote this terrible book, and his characters are completely fascinating to me.

Additionally, I read this book for the first time just as I graduated high school, when I was personally quite enraptured by man DGNM in media. Outside of school work, this was one of the first "adult" "literature" books I elected to read on my own and I was completely swept away by the writing.
I'd like to think I've matured enough now as a reader to critique HH's status as a DGNM and as a writer to really absorb and understand the craft that went into this novel.
It's hard to say I "like" this book, but I would, perhaps, say I respect it. While perhaps no longer a 5-star because of my more nuanced understanding of the actual topic, rather than reading it when I was, in fact, still a teenager/child myself, the strong writing will always push it close to 4-stars for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Murder, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, and Rape

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Child death and Physical abuse