Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

17 reviews

michelles_book_nook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

⚠️ CW: school shooting, murder, fatphobia, racism, homophobia, ableism, mental illness, child abuse and mentions of paedophilia ⚠️ This book is so hard hitting and had me hooked from the very beginning! Eva never really wanted to be a mother, certainly not the mother of a boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who had tried to befriend him. Now, two years after her son's horrific rampage, Eva comes to terms with her role as Kevin's mother in a series of startlingly direct letters with her absent husband about their son's upbringing. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about motherhood. This book is so incredibly chilling, heartbreaking and truly makes you consider the nature vs nurture debate. I regularly had to put it down and really think about the psychological side of this story, it was definitely a lot to consider but the characters and plot lived rent free in my head even when I wasn't reading and I think it will stay with me for a long time. I'd previously watched the movie of this but the book is on a whole different level that I can't even explain properly, it's one of those that you just have to read to understand the emotional rollercoaster. Overall, I absolutely adored this book from the way it was written to the hugely thought provoking plot, and I highly recommend reading it but please take the CW's into account because this is a very difficult read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Racism

Minor: Pedophilia

aniloracccc's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Fatphobia, and Death of parent

quinn24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Lionel Shriver can write so well I just wish her bigoted beliefs weren’t consistently clawing their way onto the page completely unnecessarily.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Genocide, Vomit, and Classism

gunkguy's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Homophobia

librarian_barbie's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's very well written, though at times too flowery and slightly grating. It's a good book, but not entertaining- very much meant to be thought about rather than just consumed. I liked it, but still had some hesitations in giving it a high rating. Glad I read it, but I don't think I'd read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

Minor: Ableism and Fatphobia

fiona_245's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Wonderful book, nice prose, and extremely reflective - especially in child-rearing and building a family. Although it was quite difficult for me to push through, with constant searching for word meanings on the dictionary, and getting lost in the prose, I still managed to digest the message and the emotions and thoughts Eva dealt with in her suffering.

• It really did stick to my mind that you could be good parents but you have a child who'd turn out bad.
• There's a lot more reasons not to bear a child other than expecting he/she will turn out to be a killer.
• Motherhood is a real work. I can't just judge easily how a parent is handling his/her child, though if it's extreme enough, like straight out torturing a child then 'course I'll judge him/her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Violence, and Murder

megelizabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this, having had it sitting on my shelves for ages and having heard so much about it over the years. It's a slow, dense read, and not at all an enjoyable one, but definitely a fascinating one overall. The ending also really surprised me, and it's definitely well-written and cleverly thought-out as a whole. The main thing that stopped me giving this a higher rating is that, while the protagonist is clearly deliberately unlikeable, there were times where it wasn't clear whether particular awful things were purely Eva or instead were reflective of the author's views. I also really struggled to see any real love or connection between Eva and her husband, which made that element of the story (and it's quite a big one) super hard to care about or link with everything else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Genocide

caramel_peaches's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Mass/school shootings

Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

caitmal's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I found the author’s writing style very hard to get into. She seemed to use 10 words to say something when 3 would share the message equally as well. The characters were all terrible and such clique’s of different people in a trauma situation. None of the characters had any flexibility to their personality. The last 30 pages were the only ones I read quickly. The rest dragged on. I’ve seen some reviews talk about how the author is highlighting nature vs nurture which seems ridiculous as neither view are highlighted in an effective way at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings

Minor: Ableism, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

ajlct's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

It's an excellent technical display of unlikeable characters and an unreliable narrator, but ultimately there was nothing redeeming about this book that made me glad to have read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail