Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

A Murder on Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

9 reviews

faduma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

singalana's review against another edition

adventurous informative relaxing medium-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

Hurmaava kirja vie aikamatkalle 1920-luvun Bombayhyn, jossa erilaiset kulttuurit kohtaavat, joskus kohtalokkainkin seurauksin.

Perveen Mistry on Bombayn ensimmäinen naispuolinen lakimies. Hän saa tehtäväkseen hoitaa perinnön jaon menehtyneen muslimimiehen kolmen eristyksessä elävän vaimon ja näiden lapsien kesken. Kimurantiksi muuttuva tapaus herättää muistoja Perveenin omasta menneisyydestä.

Kirja kuvasi kiehtovalla tavalla Intialaisia kulttuureja ja naisen asemaa 1920-luvun Intiassa. Vaikka kirjassa vilisi kulttuureihin liittyviä termejä ja sanoja, oli sen tapahtumia silti helppo seurata, ja vieraat sanat antoivat tarinalle oman mausteensa. Perveen päähenkilönä oli mielenkiintoinen ja hahmo oli uskottava kaikkine puolineen.

Kuuntelin kirjan äänikirjana, ja aluksi minua hieman häiritsi se, että kirja kertoo nuoren intialaisnaisen elämästä, mutta lukijan ääni kuulostaa liian kypsältä hahmoon nähden. Mutta totuin siihen nopeasti, ja aloin pitämään lukijan rauhallisesta tyylistä. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Colonisation

bessadams's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

shea_proulx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

bel017's review against another edition

challenging

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

 Liked the MC, liked the world, got a bit confused with the contract law parts, but it was interesting to read about another time and place. The author really brought everything to life. Recommended. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexism, and Blood

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Medical content

bootsmom3's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Islamophobia

tansreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma

rieviolet's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

honeycomb_system's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

We would classify The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey as a cozy mystery that just happens to be set in 1920s Bombay. Think the legal maneuvering of David Rosenfeldt’s Andy Carpenter series with the small town feel of Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy series, all infused with the delicious flavors of India.

The main character, Perveen Mistry, is based on the first female lawyer in India. We really enjoyed watching her use the law to fight for justice where only she can: within a Muslim household’s zenana. We also enjoyed watching her grow as she becomes more competent, takes on new challenges, and learns to work around the constraints society places on her. The characters in the story kept us hooked – for the most part.

Sadly there were some sections where the book started to drag and it felt like we were slogging through the doldrums. We enjoyed the rest of the book so much that it thoroughly aggravates us that Massey chose to include the chapters set in 1917.

At first we assumed that there would be a connection between Cyrus, the love interest featured in these chapters, and the murder in 1920. Spoiler: Cyrus is a Chekhov’s gun. We really have no idea why the author thought it was necessary to include him at all.

It feels like the 1917 chapters are Massey preaching to the reader about how awful things were for women in Bombay. These chapters should’ve hit the cutting room floor, or at the least been massively condensed. Take our advice and skip the 1917 chapters. It will significantly improve your reading experience.

But we still loved the book enough to read it four out of five stars and buy the sequel.Perveen, her father Jamshadji, and her friend Alice are all characters we definitely want to spend more time with. We also love the vivid pictures Massey paints of life in Bombay with the wide variety of cultures and their clashes with British colonialism. She uses just the right salting of languages like Hindi to add authentic detail without confusing readers who don’t know these terms – Especially important in an audiobook when we didn’t know how to spell the non-English words in order to look them up.

Soneela Nankani does an excellent job of narrating. She gives slightly different accents to characters from different cultures and has a pleasant voice. She never seems to stumble over non-English words.while some reviewers found it difficult to keep track of who is who, we had no trouble tracking who was speaking. While we appreciate the energy Nankani brings to the narration, after a while we noticed that she seems to give every sentence an astonished feeling, which does become annoying. We noticed that Audible switches narrators with the sequel. We usually hate it when they do this, but perhaps Sneha Mathan’s narration will not suffer from the constant astonishment problem.

A Word to the Wise (Content Warnings)

Major: Domestic violence; sexism, misogyny, and colonialism/racism appropriate to the period; toxic family dynamics; manipulation/gaslighting; religious abuse.

Moderate: Assault, alcoholism, kidnapping, child abuse, violence, homophobia, heteronormativity.

Minor: Brief mention of blood, incest.

TL;DR

We already consider the Asian Readathon a success because we found a new series to love. The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey is a book anyone who loves a good cozy legal mystery with a plucky heroine should try. we are already looking forward to book two!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Blood