Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

283 reviews

jesslynnking's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Rape, Cannibalism, Murder, and Pregnancy

leolai's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

Disgusting, disturbing and vile and I liked it. This is satire on religion and power and it was brilliant. Lapvona is unapologetic tale about religion's dark corners, showing abuse, patriarchy/misogyny, human stupidity and hypocrisy in piousness. How death is more important than life we are living now. Suffering is a virtue and everyone feels superior to everybody else, justified in their hatred and selfishness. This book is easy to understand but hard to read because it's so dark. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Vomit, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

bookmuva's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

cydney's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The author’s ability to write in a way that makes you feel gross (like you need to wash your hands or brush your teeth), is unfortunately wasted in this book. I pushed through to the end hoping the gratuitous graphic descriptions and situations would lead to some sort of end that was just as elaborate or maybe even provide a reprieve by way of a satisfying ending, but I was left disappointed and annoyed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Child death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion

n3verm0r3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Abortion

gbmillar2002's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.75

Disgustingly grotesque, it is an amazing deep dive within a English medieval village and its intersection between religion, feudalism and the perverse nature of what is denied. It is amazing, I haven’t had a book that had made me say WTF out loud before.

For example when they talk about the old woman breastfeeding marrick even though he is 13, combine this with his own freudian sexual
Behaviours it is bizarre

. Highly recommend for those who want a book that is out there, intense and graphic. Give it a skip if intense and taboo topics make you uncomfortable as moshfegh describes these issues in albeit ye olde English, in intense detail. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

tiwwy's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Abortion

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Blood, and Murder

aubdyson's review against another edition

dark

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I picked this up after hearing about it in a vlog on BookTube. 

“Lapvona” follows Marek, the abused son of a Shepard who never knew his own mother. Marek has a particularly close bond with the village midwife, Ina, whom he has breastfed from for most of his life. After a rather traumatic incident, Marek finds himself brought in the middle of a violent power struggle being had in the lord’s home. 

This is one of those books that I finished and am kind of unsure how to describe what I just read. This book felt very strange and often went off on tangents I was not expecting. 

Marek’s story is quite heartbreaking, and it was easy to become enamored with him. He never knew his mother, which would be a great challenge for anyone, but to top it off, his father abuses him. This neglect has really contributed to why he is so close to Ina, and why he still seems so dependent on her. There were some scenes between them that made me uncomfortable, but I think that was the point. The circumstances that brought Marek to the lord’s home were very traumatic, not only for him, but for the reader as well. 

The medieval setting of this story is not one I typically read from, so that was a great change of pace. It felt authentic for the time but still relatable in ways to today’s world. 

I think this novel overall breaks away from the expected, even what is to be expected from this author. This novel is hard to get through, but I also did not want to put it down. I did not like what was happening, but I also needed to know what was going to happen next. This author is so skilled at crafting a novel that pushes so many envelopes while still hammering home a point to the reader. 

I do not think I necessarily recommend this novel to anyone, unless they already had an interest in it, but overall I am happy I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Pregnancy

ambersoda's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Vomit, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and Pregnancy