Reviews tagging 'Incest'

The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini

119 reviews

tinkamasala's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

sidekicksam's review against another edition

Written almost entirely in Trinidadian Creole, this book follows the life of Alethea, known to some also as Miss Allie or Girlie. About to turn 40, she is in a relationship with a violent man, but comes before the choice of where she wants to go with her life. As we go deeper into the story, more troubling secrets from her past become unveiled, but how will she deal with them? 

I don't want to waste too many words on this review because I'm having a hard time finding the right ones to describe how amazed, inspired and surprised I was about this book. Exploring themes of domestic abuse, generational trauma, colonialism, colorism and friendship, Allen-Agostini writes beautifully and engagingly. She could've written the story over 1.000 pages and I still would have wanted more, but that made it all the more amazing that she did it in less than 250 and it still made me feel so engrossed in the main character and her story. 

Highly recommend. Go read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Infertility, Emotional abuse, Rape, Death of parent, Death, Racism, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Incest

saboyer's review

challenging dark medium-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

2.5

Really beautifully rendered character, a great voice, an interesting “coming of age” for a late bloomer in life. But the explicit scenes of abuse and eventually child molestation/rape was too much to feel good about recommending this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, and Incest

gobby_gilbert's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Abortion, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Death, and Classism

samants's review

dark emotional medium-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

4.75

Phenomenal. The dialect is lyrical, and I enjoyed the challenge of reading something not written for me. The book is a portrait of abuse and therefore heavy and dark, but also stunning, and I adored the main character. The ending is wide open, and I love it.

Do mind the content warnings -- they are real and graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexual harassment

paochavezgt's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.25

Be careful if you choose to read this book. It can be very triggering. It is heart wrenching. 

This was an excruciating read. I feel physically and emotionally ill. By all means I understand how powerful her writing and storytelling is. There are certain topics and storylines I'm simply not able to digest properly. The dread that i feel for Ali is uncanny, I hope she gets to surround herself with kind women, from this point forward. Although, I do question wether a victim of abuse would still enjoy certain things from their abuser, I believe reading this experience as hard as it is, gives a voice to survivors. Not a feminist voice, if I might say.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Incest, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Violence, and Xenophobia

tombomp's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Big trigger warnings for domestic violence, rape, child abuse, an *explicit* child sexual abuse scene, Spoilerincest. All of which are intense and there are constant scenes throughout the book.

I think it's hard to put my thoughts together about this. It's a cavalcade of trauma and abuse and then it just ends so... neatly? Like, not that the scars are resolved obviously. But it feels weird - although even saying that feels wrong, as if I'm suggesting that actually the trauma should have carried on, which is also not what I meant.

I think part of it is that the neat ending owes very little to the actions of the main character in the "present day" - there's connections formed in childhood that only just come back around all at once and we only see bits and pieces of how they happened and Spoilera loose friendship where the other person seemingly took it upon herself to get the MC's abusive violent boyfriend shot in a way that framed him as the shooter? it's a little vague at the end exactly what happened and how much knowledge people had but it's heavily implied imo. That's not bad exactly - everyone needs support and it's good to show stuff happening as a group effort, obviously. It more just adds to the sense that things wrapped up due purely to coincidence than anything else. Which... again I guess that's not that inaccurate to real life. So again I can't exactly mark it down for that. 

I think the explicit child sexual abuse scene really threw me for a loop and eclipsed everything else about the book. Not suggesting it's wrong to portray it, just it was so intense (even though I had to skim it) that I couldn't really get settled about how I feel about the book due to feeling so upset and lost reading that. 

I will say as an obvious unalloyed good thing: the Trinidadian Creole writing style is really good and I loved reading it. It's an incredibly readable book that's quite compelling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Infertility, Incest, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Rape

marygray149's review

dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Abortion, Alcoholism, Rape, Addiction, Alcohol, and Incest

t33_'s review

dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

WOW.
Sad, intense, empowering, womanhood, emotional. I don’t think I’ve ever read something like this before but I am glad that I have. My God, this book was something else! I barely write reviews and I don’t give many books 5 stars but this story was impeccable. 

10/10 across the board! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Infertility, Death, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Emotional abuse

joppiereading's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-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

4.75

Original and beautiful, a truly heart wrenching exploration of the life of someone who has achieved a lot, but had to come from hell to do so (picking up some distorted habits and thoughts along the way). Some elements were just a little too much for me, but I wasn’t nearly as put off as I would have expected if you had told me about it before. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Infidelity, Murder, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Addiction, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Rape, and Toxic relationship