Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

5 reviews

aducharme4's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Homophobia and Infidelity

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Finally a book about the Vietnam War by a Vietnamese person. Took a while to finish this. Wanted to savor it but also, it was a lot to digest. Strongly recommend reading the op-ed and Q&A at the end too. Gives me a much greater in depth insight into the book by seeing it from the author’s perspective.

PS, have a dictionary handy. There were a LOT of SAT words!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

badmom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Infidelity, Excrement, and Pregnancy

anarmandameg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Just gonna recycle my review from The Hanging City and say 'Weirdly Horny'

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Blood, and Classism

space_corgi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Finishing this book took me months. And I do mean months. Do I still rate it at 4.75 stars? Yes, yes I do. 

As told in other reviews, the writing is VERBOSE. At some points, it is gratuitously verbose. But that is the voice of our narrator. An intellectual who is trying to dissect himself, but doesn’t quite get there until he is confronted with his own sins. If that sounds cool to you, you would like this book. Otherwise, this is not a spy novel. I mean, it is, but it’s more a reflection on power, control and war.

Also, I would say calling this a thriller is a stretch. You’ll be thrilled by certain passages that you want to underline, frame and paste on the folds of your brain lobes. But the pacing is slow. Arduously slow. And that doesn’t fall in line with a “thriller”. 

Now let’s hop into what wasn’t so great. The narrator’s view on women is complex and disgusting at points in the novel. The sexualization of war and disturbingly detached descriptions of women’s bodies is frankly tough to read through. It’s as if every male author who wants to be seen as intellectual subscribes to using sex/analogies to sex/sexual violence as a way to show the primitive nature of any action. Reverting to cavemen? What better way to illustrate than to bastardize all men through what (presumably) they all desire? Come on people. Let’s do better for all the women that have to read through this crap. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit and Murder

Minor: Confinement, Infidelity, Blood, and Classism