Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez

31 reviews

manuelac's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Blood, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

allyah's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

kelsi_r's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, and Torture

recollections's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

es a última historia...sin palabras

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

katie_greenwinginmymouth's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

So glad to have finally got round to reading these stories. I really appreciate writing where horror or genre tropes are used to explore and expose actual real life horror - in this case that of a country that has been brutalised by decades of violent dictatorship. These elements of the stories are so well done and are rooted in Argentina’s religious and spiritual traditions. The stories are genuinely unsettling and rightly so. There is a really strong sense of place throughout and the unforgiving nature of the landscape and the climate is often referenced - at one point the humidity is described “as if a brutal arm were wound round your waist and squeezing.” I was struck by how many of the stories featured vile, useless or abusive men and how much that said about the pervasiveness of toxic masculinity. “Under the Black Water” might have been my favourite one for its brilliant commentary on police brutality, environmental degradation and society’s prejudice against and fear of marginalised communities. It is darkly carnivalesque and burrows deep under your skin.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Police brutality, and Murder

internationalreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, and Murder

noel_b's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A creepy collection of stories that are unsettling, sometimes disgusting, and always, always vivid. Every story goes to a different part of Argentina and explores a different version of life at its margins.

Most of the stories have a gothic feel to them and the prose (at least in Spanish) managed to describe my home country in a way that felt both familiar and alien. Comforting and disturbing. The author knows exactly how to latch on to the shadows we tend to look over, and make them deeper, darker, impossible to ignore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, and Cannibalism

patricia_epub's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, and Grief

mackenzi's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 Reading this book was like the author taking me into a little apartment and sitting me down on a couch or at an intimate little table. She brings in a box, an old shoebox or a little decorative wooden box, and opens it up and it's full of time-faded photographs and polaroids. She takes them out one by one, tells me the name of the person in it as she looks at the dates and little notes written on them in all sorts of different handwritings. 1979, 1991, 1983, 1999- I try to imagine what each year might mean but it's hard for me to imagine a place I don't know well during a time I didn't exist yet. It's a thrill to get to peek in at these lives I'd have never otherwise known, but none of the people in the photos seem happy, and I'm filled with apprehension.

 She tells me a story about each photo, a story she heard from a friend or a grandparent. Some of the names are the same from photograph to photograph, and I wonder if they're ever the same people displaced a little by time, still finding their way into stranger's photos just to be lost again. The stories are all a little sad, melancholic for their world-weariness, and all are frightening. Some scare me because ghosts scare me like they scare a child, some are scary because the world is just that way and I feel helpless about it. 

Each story ends, abruptly, her voice fading into silence as she sets the photo on the table, making a little pile that she's already gone through. I ask what happened to the person, what happened next, and she shrugs, she doesn't know. So each story lingers, because my mind craves completion, resolution- but if you've ever stumbled onto old photos in an antique store, you know there's no resolution. You can stare at the faces in the pictures all day and never know who they really were. And each story haunts because there seems like a world of things in that story, and I want to sift through each one to try and find the meaning, the lesson, the history, the knowledge of someone who might have lived it for real. 

But they're still just photographs and eventually she runs out of them, and she's putting them back in the box and she's taking the box away again, and I'm left with a handful of memories that feel startlingly real. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Hate crime, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Police brutality

MOST of these are brief mentions or descriptions. However, if it is brought up in a short story, usually the short story will revolve around those themes even if it does not describe or portray the issues explicitly. Go into this collection aware that, however brief, the intention of the author is to bring to light many real-world things in a creepy, eerie, or supernatural way, but a way that resonates deeply. In my opinion, it is mindfully executed with a deft and subtle hand. The author writes from cultural experience.

samanthaleereads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and Blood