Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Míň než nula by Bret Easton Ellis

40 reviews

jay4bale's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

eliya95's review against another edition

dark 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

2.75

I understand what BEE was going for here and feel like he almost got there, but not quite. This book is Play It As It Lays if it were written by a guy in college…literally. This is a male perspective with a younger cast and characters that are more shallowly written. At a point Clay mentions that he wants to see the worst of society, and I fear BEE didn’t do the best job to show that Clay himself, in his complacency, is the worst of society. He didn’t engage in the awful things his friends did, but didn’t do anything to stop them, and continued to be their friend after he knew they were the worst of society. His apathy at the end to the horrors of the world that he was complacent in should have been emphasized more. Clay was just as bad as his friends, if not worse, since he watched them do awful things, and awful things be done to them, and did nothing, and cared to do nothing about it. I understand why people hate this book. I didn’t hate it. I understand the vision. I just don’t think he totally got there with it and that his point was completely made. That seems to be a problem with other BEE writing as well. Honestly, I wouldn’t say don’t read this book, it’s short and moves quickly, but if you want to read a novel where the characters are in LA and completely unlikable…just read Play It As It Lays By Joan Didion instead. It was the OBVIOUS inspiration for this (some scenes were literally the ‘when someone asks to copy your homework and you say yeah just change it a little’ meme) but the writing is better and there are actual motives behind the bad behavior of the characters that are clear and understandable. Plus there isn’t a random act of sexual violence against a young girl at the end, which really could have been cut out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Eating disorder and Abortion

j_yarbrough's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

alex_nicolee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

ninee's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

ganieva's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Antisemitism and Cannibalism

beyondthevalley's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-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

"What's right? If you want something, you have the right to take it. If you want to do something, you have the right to do it."

Quickest I've read a book in a very long time... fast-paced and addictive. I really love Ellis's style and can't wait to dive into more. Truly upsetting by its tail end but guides you there in a way that is seriously master class. A condemnation of 80s excess and capitalistic greed, bled and bred by the parents into their children who want for nothing and therefore strive for nothing and, as Rip says, the only thing they don't have is something to lose.

So clearly an influence on Gregg Araki (who is one of my all time favorite directors) in the depictions of teenage ambivalence turned nihilism turned casual violence. Can't say I feel good after this but am still very glad to have read it, and for it to have moved so fluidly and quickly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking

Most of the intense scenes are brief but very extreme. Notably two scenes, where a video is watched and a scene at the very end.

jamesflan's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

acselman's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug abuse

adrireism's review against another edition

dark relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I had high expectations but the book is boring. The writing is sarcastic and captivating, hence the positive score, but the whole book is just a sequence of utterly boring events filled with hopelessness and personal decay that lead nowhere. Rich kids doing drugs and being awful to everyone around them. Every time you pick up the book you feel icky, but you can't stop reading because you feel a disaster is around the corner to break the stagnation. Turns out the book *is* the disaster. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Alcohol