Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Red Word

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

hannah_allen's review

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challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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chaya_v's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

A beautifully written book about a rape culture. I enjoyed Karen’s perspective a lot, I felt like I was living through the same moral dilemmas as she was. The story allowed to show multiple perspectives and also how easily rape still goes unpunished. The events taking place in the book won’t sound unfamiliar to most college students.

I wasn’t too much a fan of the present day povs, they felt a bit unnecessary. I didn’t really get what they were supposed to convey.

The friend group and Karen’s exclusion from their plans reminded of the Secret History by Donna Tart a little bit.

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marykatesbooks's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I’ve been reading a lot of books that center feminine rage lately, and this book had a unique approach to dealing with this topic. Instead of Karen, our main character, demonstrating her feminine rage, characters like Dyann take control on that front and the reader is forced to take a step back watching and waiting with Karen to see what Dyann does with her anger. I will say that the movement between past and present felt a little unnecessary, an epilogue would have given a similar impact in my opinion.

Spoiler

I did like the use of the quote about the blood at the beginning though, in the present when Karen focuses on that snapshot memory we get a glimpse into the road we’re going down with her. Honestly by the time the actual blood scene happened I had completely forgotten about it, so I was JARRED by Bruce’s death. It was so sudden and tragic, which I suppose is the point.

I absolutely loved how Greek mythos was tied into the book, it didn’t feel too forced and there were moments where I couldn’t tell if it was an allusion to mythology or if i was just looking too hard. The way that Henstra tied in Catholic imagery was quite interesting to me as well because it reminded me of the Madonna-whore complex, I was actually reminded of this complex very frequently while reading the book. At times it felt like the book was trying to be and do too many things all at the same time, so it left me feeling like I wasn’t getting the complete story by the end despite the cuts between past and present. I primarily wish the readers got closure for the characters, we barely heard anything about them. Overall I quite liked the book, but there were a lot of areas that I would tweak if the book were just for me.

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hannakutlu's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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fviryshelves's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

placebogirl's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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mrpepper's review

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challenging dark 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? Yes

4.25

Have read many similar books this year I would recommend sooner, but the book grew on me significantly throughout the reading.

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jodie_'s review

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challenging dark reflective 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? Yes

3.75

Make sure to check the TW’s if you’re going to read this book as it deals with a lot of sensitive topics.
Overall I enjoyed this book, but the content in which it dealt with meant it took me longer to read than normal. I could only manage a chapter or two at a time without getting mad or irritated with the characters. This book had me asking a lot of questions, and confronting my own beliefs and thoughts surrounding rape and sexual assault. It was a very good book in addressing those issues and raising those questions. It really makes you think and I liked that.

Content Warnings