Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith

19 reviews

maegani's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Eating disorder

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

this was…. hm. 4.5 stars

it was incredibly well-written, if a bit dark for my tastes. the characters were so interesting and zoomed-in; it really felt like living in their heads. 

while i thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, my head hurts a little trying to keep up with all the threads. the author bit off a lot, chewed it pretty well, but i think the bolus was a bit too much for me to swallow in the end. i can tell a lot of work went into weaving all the threads together, but i think i need to write out a timeline to really feel like i finished this book. part of that is me wanting a neater ending for winnie, but the other part is just that this book throws a lot of competing desires and pains at you all at once 

enjoyed reading, and would definitely read more by this author! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Blood, Sexism, Vomit, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Incest, Excrement, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

sophia_zaytoun_habib's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Violence, Body shaming, Alcohol, Abandonment, Vomit, Gore, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Murder, Excrement, Sexual harassment, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Death, Classism, Body horror, and Blood

ashwaar's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Build Your House Around My Body is, to me, an example of perfect novel construction - an interesting, deeply thematic story where the author trusts us, readers, to figure out what’s going on and even if we don’t entirely understand it, that ends up not mattering because the writing style is so enthralling and engaging.

I’ve seen several reviews saying they didn’t really ‘get’ this book or didn’t understand the end or how the individual stories were connected. Whilst I understand why some people would feel this way, I don’t share these sentiments. All the things listed as negatives in these reviews I thought were absolutely brilliant. I wish more books were written like this instead of the clunky, overly-expositional writing I see in many other novels.

The book alternates between different characters and timelines, and this can be hard to follow, especially at first. However, the storyline is so compelling, and it's really compelling as you start to understand how these different narratives come together. Some of our main characters include Winnie, a 20-something Vietnamese-American who has come to Saigon to teach English; Tan, a corrupt policeman; his brother Long, who works at the school with Winnie; their childhood friend Binh; a fortune-teller and his assistants; a small dog; an old woman selling lottery tickets, and a two-headed cobra.

I thought the characters were a perfect mix of engaging and repulsive. They were all very flawed and not really great people. I didn’t root for them at all which is usually a huge turn-off for me, but I was motivated to keep reading because their roles and stories were so interesting, layered and complex. I think this would be a great book to study in a literature class because there is so much to explore in terms of different themes, including Vietnamese folklore, ghost stories, trying to find belonging in a new country, the treatment of women, and backpacker culture in Vietnam.

In conclusion, I loved this book! I thought it was fascinating, sharp, creepy and highly compelling. I can tell that on re-reading, you’ll notice so much more about the story, and it will be like a completely different experience. It is slightly longer, but I think it's so gorgeously written, and the pay-off is completely worth it. This is a book with so many nuances it's impossible to explore in one review, but the author manages to pull it off expertly in these 400 pages.

Rating: 4.5/5

Read the full review on Bookmarked by Ash or follow me on @bookmarked_by_ash

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Excrement, Blood, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Sexism, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Classism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Rape, Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, and Incest

minkler's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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

1.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Incest, Violence, War, Eating disorder, and Injury/Injury detail

savvylit's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Build Your House Around My Body is a masterful blend of historical fiction and magical realism. Each paranormal element in the book is a visual representation of the ripple effects of the trauma of colonialism and violence. Kupersmith's use of magical realism is done to devastating effect and I certainly won't forget any of her monsters any time soon.

As a whole, this book is a fascinating glimpse into Vietnam, both past and present. Some of the most interesting portions of the book were Winnie's observations of modern ex-pat culture in Saigon. It was no surprise to learn that Kupersmith herself was also an ESL teacher like Winnie. Kupersmith's intimacy with specific stereotypical ex-pats shines through in her written caricatures of Winnie's coworkers.

Ultimately, my only criticisms of this novel would be its length (400 pages) and organization. The timeline jumps so often that it disrupts the flow of the greater story. There are also several characters that readers only briefly get to know. I think that their portions could have been cut back or woven into another character's perspective to keep the book at a more manageable length.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Mental illness, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Murder, Classism, War, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Body horror, and Xenophobia

lemaog's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? N/A

4.0

I don’t normally like books with magical elements, but this one was a nice surprise! Even though it featured numerous ghosts and magical abilities. 
The atmosphere was dark and the amazing prose transported you right to Saigon, the place where most of the story is set. To summarise the plot is impossible to me because even after finishing the last pages I’m still a bit confused about all the crazy shit that went on. I still rate this book quite highly because of it‘s uniqueness and because I overall enjoyed reading it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

nikachu's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Violence, Blood, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexism

kyahs's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I finished it as I was curious enough about what was going on. Although, I wanted it to end and the end did not meet my expectations. The book takes you through many characters interlinked lives, there is something missing in it for me and I did find it hard to follow. Now I've finished, if I started again it would probably all make sense but I do not want to do that.

Some great insight into Vietnamese food, culture and history.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

Moderate: Rape

Minor: War, Death, and Violence