Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - De geniale vriendin

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

De geniale vriendin by Elena Ferrante

89 reviews

lisafagerlind's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

a little bit of sexual absuse and violence

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isabookabel's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

It took me a while to get into this book, but the protagonist's narrative and exploration of her thought processes and emotions are so in-depth I ended up being really absorbed and think I will probably read the rest of the series. I think the complexity of emotion she has for her friend and the way the the author explores this means this book will stay with me for a long time - I can't think of another that explores so many nuances in a female friendship, over such a time period and underpins explicitly telling the reader with suggestions of more. Likewise, the internal self reflection was really profound and not something I come across often in books to this level - especially not combined with a good plot. The relationships were all rich in detail and felt very believable. 4.5 stars currently but had a hard time rating this so may return and bump up or down - partly because of all the reasons above I feel it could easily be a 5 star - but I suppose I don't feel like I love it and have enough affection for it to rate it a 5 at this moment. Partly because I spent about a week reading the first quarter of the book and feeling it drag rather, before then reading the rest in about 2 days. This meant though my feeling towards it changed, at this moment I spent much longer feeling frustrated with it than enjoying reading it. I will probably return to this at a later date and see if 4.5 seems fair.

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risemini's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-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

4.5

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dreamersmind's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

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raisinreads's review against another edition

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3.0

I know this is universally loved & there were factors of it I definitely enjoyed, but it just didn't quite hit for me, felt underwhelming in a lot of ways

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lianadmtr's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

mindblowing and heartbreaking. if you have it anything less than 5 stars YOU DIDNT GET IT

a sophisticated, dark, honest yet painful exploration of girlhood and female friendships in a space that is so fundamentally abusive to women. fuck every single man in this story

i do see the donna tartt stylistic similarities but elena ferrante writes with so much more intimacy and warmth. my favorite part was how i read almost the entire book thinking that lila was the brilliant friend while relating a lot to lenu, only to realize in the end that lila considered lenu the brilliant one - to me, this was so sad yet so beautiful at the same time

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