Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

43 reviews

teainthelibrary's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, and Suicide

kayleejanes's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

geehyde86's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

jessthanthree's review against another edition

funny lighthearted reflective fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Gun violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Medical content, and Death of parent

elliv's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective tense 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

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Terminal illness, Abortion, Pregnancy, and War

e11en's review against another edition

challenging dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Incest

echorose202's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

I can't be sure how I feel about this book. I listened to the audio book, so I don't know if it was that or the book itself that felt slow. I didn't manage to finish the film adaptation - mostly from boredom - so I thought I'd give the book a go. While the book is definitely better than the film, by the end it all felt so pointless, and I hadn't manage to find any of the characters loveable (except for the few strong female lead quips of Bella Baxter). 

I'm glad I read it for myself, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide

xcinnamonsugar's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

[Audiobook] This book discusses feminism, sexual autonomy and socialism in the Victorian era. While sex is mentioned frequently, it is almost always alluded to in amusingly polite Victorian slang rather than described explicitly. 

Bella's origin story initially reads like a misogynistic rewrite of Frankenstein. The narrator (Candless) discovers that his doctor friend (Baxter) has resurrected a beautiful 25-year-old woman (Bella) and given her the mental faculties of a literal child.

Candless meets childlike Bella and is instantly smitten, asking her to marry him. Big yuck. Bella also meets playboy/lawyer Wedderburn, who convinces her to let him sneak into her bedroom at night and they eventually elope. Extra big yuck.

It's an uncomfortable narrative for many reasons, not least because there is no shortage of predatory male characters.

As the story progresses, Bella assumes the role of a young child trying to understand the ways of the world, and why its rules promote inequality and exploitation.  She routinely calls out instances of misogyny and colonialism.

One poignant example is when Bella observes that women working in a brothel are healthy when they are first hired and it is the male clientele that brings in diseases. She suggests that male clients should therefore be the ones subject to the inconvenience and invasiveness of health screenings before being allowed access, instead of the women. Predictably, Bella's suggestion was shot down because upholding the patriarchy is ~profitable~.

I felt slightly dissatisfied by the conclusion. There were still too many gaps and unanswered questions, even after accounting for the fact that we are reading conflicting accounts by two unreliable narrators. Perhaps weaving in so many complex topics came at the expense of a watertight storyline. The narrative did get boring at times, and I wish Bella's POV had been fleshed out more. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicide

kurtwombat's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

 

My estimation of this novel rose and fell several times during my reading. I mostly enjoyed bobbing and weaving my way through this Victorian novel spoof pastiche of different unreliable narrators in different styles, formats and genres but there were a few points of tedium. The letters from abroad format went on a little too long and the third section of the novel delivered as bits of reporting were a tad too dry (more interesting when I finally realized what the point of it was). But the central idea is genius—that in order to tell the story of a smart, independent, self-actualized woman (in Victorian Scotland or even today) the story has to be approached as science fiction. Such a woman has to be the Frankenstein like creation of a man—she couldn’t come naturally by those qualities. That is the first part (maybe ¾ of the novel). Second part is the real female character telling her side—much more realistic but still skewed by her perspective. And the last part is a kind of reckoning of the two—dispatches from the time create a foundation of reality. Feels old and new at the same time—don’t settle in it will change directions. Lays waste to men as a gender—rightfully so. Presents them as foolish and temperamental and disposable just as women in literature were/are often portrayed. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicide