Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

O Grande Círculo by Maggie Shipstead

40 reviews

prettycloud's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I kept catching myself wanting a movie of this book, even though I know book-movies are often disappointing, and indeed the book itself shows how much movies can miss. But this book is so visually beautiful, a delight for the mind's eye that draws from perspective characters' longings and aesthetic sensibilities to set its scenes. Though it is a long book, I never felt weighed down—when the plot doesn't move forward, the characters do, and this book is much about people's relationships to themselves and each other as it is about Graves attempting her "great circle." I liked the meditations on disappearance and death, on people's purpose in life and the interactions of chance and fate. This book has so much life in it, so much energy and realness and joy. And yet it also explores the legendary, and there is a pervading larger-than-life feeling even as we read about Marian's day-to-day life. It will be a while before I finish processing this one, because the questions it asks are woven so neatly into the story itself, but they're there. I guess, bottom-line, if you find yourself spending too long reading the Wikipedia articles of celebrities, this book might be for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, War, Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Vomit, Abortion, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, Stalking, and Terminal illness

Minor: Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Child death, Body shaming, and Fire/Fire injury

About the adult/minor relationship:

There's a pretty extensive section where Marian is a teenager in a relationship with a gangster in his late twenties and early thirties. She loves and desires him, but he stalks, extorts, and rapes her as he becomes more desperate to make her into the woman he wants.

The main themes of the book have to do with death and grief, so that and suicide by extension are very present throughout the book, though the deaths that happen are seldom described in great detail.

mrslyndyp's review against another edition

Read the content warnings given in many reviews before you try this. After 120 pages I'd had enough. The concept was really interesting and promised so much and I really wanted to enjoy the adventure but was sadly, very disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

jccausey's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

kacyn21's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Infidelity, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, and Incest

The author is clearly a good writer and has a way with words, but I was too disappointed by the frequent dysfunctional sexual scenarios that played out multiple times in the first 30 pages alone. It was too disturbing for me to continue onward. The storyline/plot is very interesting and I wish these scenes hadn’t been written so graphically and frequently. Takes away from the rest of the story.

paolina's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Took me ages to get through this one. I was always engaged while reading it, but seldom felt like picking it back up again when I set it down for a while due to all the hardships the characters go through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, War, Infidelity, Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective sad slow-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

3.0

I didn't hate this book, I didn't love this book, it was very much a middle-of-the-road kind of book. I'm glad I read it, and I enjoyed parts of it. But I do think it was too long, and that made it hard to get through. I struggled with the audiobook too—it was hard to remember characters and dates, especially at the beginning, because there was a lot of back and forth between timelines and perspectives.

Anyway, things I liked include:
- Marian, of course, who gets some stellar development over the course of the story
- Jamie, the sweetest animal-loving vegetarian artist who I just wanted to hug
- all of the aviation stuff—learned a lot about planes
- the second half of the book
- older, Hawaii-living Caleb
- that the ending managed to surprise me, and it wasn't the kind of bittersweet/depressing/thought-provoking ending you'd expect from this kind of book. It was still thought-provoking, but in a different way that I liked and found more powerful

Things I didn't like:
- the first half of the book (and basically everything with Barclay McQueen...)
- most of Hadley's story...some of it was interesting but overall I was much more interested in Marian's story and wanted to stay in her storyline
- a lot of the relationships were doomed because of self-sabotage by the characters basically...I can only handle so much self-sabotage
- the length of this book

Basically I think I would've enjoyed this book a lot more if the beginning was pared down a lot, if it was just about Marian with no present-day timeline, and if I had read the physical book. I'm still glad I read it! But it's a hard one to recommend to people because of the length. Lots of people have loved it though, and there are some rave reviews out there. So read it if you want, and then let me know what you thought of it :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Rape, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

emblepemble's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Child abuse

solasuaine's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and War

sjanke2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Biphobia, War, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Homophobia, Gun violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, and Child death

booking_along's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

 i was born to be a wanderer. 

it’s a great epic story mostly about the life of a woman that didn’t just fit her time but also gender stereotypes, that wanted to be who she was but accepted that it would be easy for others. 

i think  this book would have been enough telling marians story without adding the drama of the actress into the story.
marians story is unique and strong and loud.

there wasn’t a need to add more or another loud voice into the mix.
it didn’t necessarily delude marians story but i also don’t think it added anything.

and since i already complaining: i think this book focused a little too much on sex in some scenes. and i didn’t see the need for that at all? 
i just don’t think all the mentions of sex was necessary especially the brutal scenes.
i get that sex apparently sells and it’s part of life but i don’t think it’s necessary to always describe it in every book. maybe just my opinion, but sometimes it’s not necessary to have all the details. 


beside those things the book was great!

i loved the passion and need the book really managed to show, the necessity that marian felt to fly, to go, to keep in the air and moving. 
but at the same time, that she clearly loved her bother and caleb and didn’t ever really to manage to actually leave them behind.

i loved the ending of the book,
i really enjoyed how it all connected together, from marians parents to her last flight.  

it’s a really great book and a wonderful story.


“circles are wonderful because they are endless. anything endless is wondrous. but endlessness is torture, too. i knew they horizon could never be caught but still chased it. what i have done is foolish; i had no choice but to do it.”

“life gives you lemons, you cave off their skins and garnish your martinis”

“….i didnt deserve to be there. and maybe i didn’t, but you can’t measure fairness in a lab. you can’t know if you deserve something. probably you don’t.”

“i own him my life, lloyd had said many times. 
your life can’t be a debt, she’d countered once, or then it’s not really yours, and nothing has been saved.”

“everyone knows men don’t get old, at least not in a way that matters”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, War, Abortion, Incest, and Sexual content