Reviews tagging 'Rape'

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

111 reviews

imaginary_space's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This is such a massive work with so many layers, I struggled to decide how to even rate or review it. So in the end, I decided to boil it down to this:

This book is a surrealist's wet dream.

It kept me interested to the end, it made me feel things and it made me learn things. And the magical realism elements are perfectly executed for my tastes. The whole story of the Buendía family feels surreal, but is set in a world that feels extremely real and I loved that. That feeling of everything happening at the same time is something rare and hard to achieve. What impressed me most is that there is not one unnecessary sentence in the whole thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, and Rape

lemaog's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

What a beast of a book! I am fascinated by the beautiful prose and simultaneously confused by the plot. My favourite thing about it were the concept of the time going on in circles and loss of memory.  To read this book was definitely an experience for me and I might come back to it in a few years to discover things I probably missed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, and Violence

lazur's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

It’s difficult to reconcile some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever had the fortune to read with the meandering plot and graphic depictions of incest. 

For me, the effort that this took to get through was rewarded by the stunning writing, but this could definitely not be the case for everyone. It is difficult to follow (especially with the repetitive names), and doesn’t follow a story in any traditional manner.

Often just as you are introduced to the inner workings of one character, Márquez sweeps them away into exile or death.

Once you accept the flow of the story, its beauty shines. The elegance and startling emotion of many passages is jaw dropping. This is clearly why this book is considered an essential. Even the graphic parts feel more honest and unflinching than crude.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest and Rape

Moderate: Murder and War

Minor: Pedophilia

aidantriestoread's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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

5.0

A definite re-read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, and Violence

maria_winther's review against another edition

4.5

So interesting. So disturbing. So beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Murder, and War

elisabeth_with_an_ess's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring mysterious slow-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

3.0

Wow. Folks, I have got THOUGHTS on this book. Up to the last two chapters, I would not have said I was enjoying this book, in spite of being amazed by the undeniable brilliance of the writing. The plot seems to ramble all over the place, with events that I expected to be ultimately climactic in nature being nearly thrown away in the narrative. On top of that there were lots of scenes and events that made me feel deeply "squicky" (check the trigger warnings on this book before you read it, because there are some doozies). However, just when I would nearly make up my mind to stop reading, I would encounter a phrase or a piece of imagery that was so breathtaking that it would keep me reading. And then, as the book ended in a whirlwind of revelation and fulfilled prophesy, I was so glad that I finished the story. 

Even so, I don't think I can honestly give the book more than three stars, even for the brilliance of the final chapters. I don't think it makes up for the unnecessarily graphic descriptions of the Buendia family's hereditary vices.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

allie8973's review against another edition

I'm not going to rate this because while I enjoyed the writing and the cyclical metaphors of time and solitude and love. I was disturbed by incest, rape, prostitution for food, beastiality, and overall grossness of the content which was written in a flippant manner. I don't think I got the greater reason or why people think this is amazing? It was confusing to begin with and the overall message is that fate is predestined? Shitty people doing shitty things. There were some cool scenes but I would not recommend this book, nor do I think I will read it again 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Rape, and War

_cecilie_'s review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ruth_rb's review against another edition

DNF

I had to stop reading this book after 100 pages or so due to the frequency of statutory rape. I understand this may be accurate to the time period, but it made me so uncomfortable and disgusted.

On top of that, I wasn’t attached to any of the characters. The ‘plot’ was fine, but not compelling to the point that I had to force myself not to skip paragraphs.

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Content Warnings

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

kia_y_k's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail