Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

4 reviews

oceange's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, Violence, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Suicide, War, Xenophobia, Death, Torture, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Colonisation, Classism, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Misogyny, Murder, Car accident, Death of parent, Excrement, Racism, and Islamophobia

aliciae08's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

4.0

This is an extremely well-written novel.  Mistry has a talent of interweaving seemingly unlikeable characters and forcing you to find empathy within their choices and actions.  That being said, this was not the book for me.

Just want you think there will be happiness for the characters—Dina getting married to a man that loves her, Om and Ishvar continuing their legacy, Maneck being spared by the suffering inflicted on the other characters—each hope is dashed. Yes, their are small victories and little rebellions, but the only characters that seemingly “win” are objectively terrible people. 

There’s a lot to think about when it comes to this novel, especially in how our actions—good or bad—are linked in ways we couldn’t ordinarily have imagined.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Physical abuse, Animal death, Classism, Death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Suicide, Torture, Sexual assault, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Grief

em8ly's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The type of book that I look up from it and I wonder why other people around me don't feel the pain I am feeling reading the book, as they go about their lives. Written beautifully and exceptionally, the relationships made in the book were an enjoyment to see come to fruition but so much of the sadness could have been hard to take in if I weren't in the mindset to read this book that I was. Overall, a fantastic read and a good look into what life was like during The Emergency. I definitely would recommend you be 18+ to read this.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Addiction, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Classism, Colonisation, Excrement, Islamophobia, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Suicide

shreyasalaria's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Hate crime, Rape, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicide, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Murder, Islamophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Bullying, and Animal death