Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

221 reviews

nienav's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

It starts out a bit confusing….but once it takes off you don’t want to stop.  It is the most twisting and intertwining story I have read that isn’t a thriller.  The characters have so much life in them…and Sixthirty is the absolute greatest dog character created in a long time!  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Suicide, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

fightmeimsmall's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

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

4.75

I dearly love this book. I love how Elizabeth isn’t completely perfect but that isn’t at all worked on in the book. Her flaws aren’t something to fix they’re just a part of her. While at times it did almost read as though she were a perfect modern (post 2000s kind of modern) woman set in a time where attitudes were different, it still mostly read well. 
One small complaint was that whilst this is very much a book about science and chemistry specifically, I don’t feel I learned anything about the topic. In Weir’s science fiction I learn science. In Kuang’s novel Babel I learned about linguistics. Unfortunately, this book didn’t teach me any chemistry. 
It did however, teach a lot about humanity, kindness, and the  types of bonds that bind us. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

bookforestsprite's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Pedophilia and Vomit

CN: contains a side storyline with a Bury Your Gays trope

dropout's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

Loved reading it. Perfect mix.
Sad and relatable. inspiring, honest and charming.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Sexual assault

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Abortion

chronic_listener's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Abandonment

jillaay_h's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

kailiyahknight's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Abortion, and Death of parent

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

While I loved the characters and the premise of a strong, female lead in the 1950’s demanding to be seen and heard as an expert in her field, I thought the beginning of the book was a bit difficult to get into. The writing style wasn’t appealing to me at first and took some getting used to but by the end of the book it felt more natural. The realities of becoming a scientist during a time period when women were only considered homemakers was an important and interesting story to learn more about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

my_personal_escape's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Car accident, and Abandonment

lokes's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative 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? No

2.0

tw: mentions of rape

Well, I’m not really sure how to rate this one… I quite liked the characters and the stories, even if it bordered on the whimsical and imaginary at times (like the hyper intelligent dog, the many coincidences between characters and especially the major plot points, etc), and the main character was feminist in the sense of the 21th century, which did throw me off a few times. Also, there is no intersectionality to the feminism of the main character, and her motto seems to be „tell women you’re proud of them and make their unpaid, invisible work (namely the house hold chores and child rearing) visible and tell them, that you’re proud of them doing it, and they’ll revolt and become suffragettes!“
The only really bad part would be the rape scenes, because the author gave the characters absolutely no reaction to that (apart from her crying once and being slightly disturbed while giving her police statement), and later even went as far as to make her pull out a kitchen knife when another male character tries to rape her (which leads to him immediately having a heart attack), all the while never letting Elizabeth have the room to acknowledge the trauma she suffered before, or working on said trauma, as if the rape made her a better, stronger women and wasn’t trauma at all, but simply something she needed to go through in order to become a feminist/independent woman. 
Apart from that, I think I liked it, even though the underlying plot is still about a man - her lover - and his long lost family. But hey, he was “one of the good ones”, to say it in the characters words…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment