Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Being Lolita: A Memoir by Alisson Wood

63 reviews

librarymouse's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

Alisson Wood's accounts of her youth and struggles with mental health are incredibly tangible and relatable. The way she writes, weaving the narrative of how she was told to perceive her being groomed by her teacher, with the reality of the situation and the storyline in the novel Lolita make for very engaging storytelling without trivializing the memories and issues she explores. To use Lolita as a lense, framed as a love story, through which to view their relationship and then recommend Alisson go to school for English implies that Nick Norris either profoundly stupid or incredibly vain.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, Body shaming, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

thebookpaiges's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Self harm, and Death

hate_crimed_at_chilis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Rape, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Adult/minor relationship

bookwormfr_t0's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

5.0

Beautiful written, painfully sad. Susan Choi wrote the blurb on the front "Being Lolita is an act of redemption".  I couldn't agree more.  Her story was written for her by the teacher, and she re-wrote it in truth.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Sexual assault

literaryrambles's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Domestic abuse

erinbarton's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

bernieem's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This was Allison's memoir - about her "love story" that she had with her teacher in high school, to later when she realises that this wasn't a love story.  This memoir gave me a perspective on how grooming and abuse can happen. 

 "Beauty plus pity, is the closest we will get to art" 

I found her perspective and thoughts as a teenager really interesting - we get to see why this happened, how she was groomed. She wanted to be understood and heard, especially considering her history with depression and mental illness, and how people perceived her. At the time it felt like the teacher was the only one who saw her, and maybe that's what enticed her and fought to get his attention so much in high school. It was disturbing to see how the teacher manipulated her with his words, actions, and how he made her think that the abusive relationship in Lolita was a love story that reflected theirs as well.

It was inspiring to learn that she ended up teaching young girls later to teach them what a healthy relationship is.  Her re-reading Lolita and slowly realising over time that the relationship she had with the teacher was abusive was really fascinating. I got a lot of insight from this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

bf54life's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.5

this book was amazing and insightful. An indecible heavy topic, but if you’re on your own healing journey it’s probably one of the first books i would recommend. I want it to be made clear this book is NOT. romance novel. Also, if you love literature this book plays with it so much and it is a joy to read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Rape, and Pedophilia

bookswithgeorgia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, and Emotional abuse

lostinpaperbacks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense

4.0

I came across this book after reading My Dark Vanessa a few months ago, I was intrigued and heard good things about this one.   There were so many similarities it was uncanny, but this is an actual memoir. Ironically enough, I enjoyed the fictionalized My Dark Vanessa a tad more.  This memoir is completely consuming---I finished it in a matter of hours! About an hour and a half to be exact. Ms. Wood manages to handle such delicate topics and complicated emotions with effortless ability. Not once does she idealize her abuser, even in her reflections of her past, but she still manages to give the reader a sense of how easily a situation can spiral and how quickly innocence can be stolen with the right words and actions. This was a good read, but it harped just a little too much on Lolita's book. I've never read it, so these passages did not speak to me and became a bit monotonous. So, I've read two eerily similar books in a short amount of time, and apparently, there is a sickening formula to this kind of inappropriate seduction of a minor student. Definitely read the TWS before reading this but overall thank you to Allison Wood for putting her story out into this world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape