Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

16 reviews

julianahughes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Gaslighting

jessbrownette's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

lexi012996's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

It's hard to say that I actually enjoyed this book because it actually filled me with dread and despair, but I did think about it a lot while I was reading it and I'm still thinking about it days later so it was definitely effective in what it was trying to do. Personally I think I prefer books where I like at least one of the characters and this book was not that--I had sympathy for Eva but I didn't like her. I don't necessarily think she deserved what happened to her either (would anyone?). I spent a lot of my time with this book thinking "oh my god, what if this happens to me?" Or "what would I do?"--I think I hoped to separate myself from Eva by answering that I would be different, but I'm afraid that in the end I did see some of myself in her. 

 I also liked the format of the book and how it was fully written as letters. One note I have was that the descriptions of various school shootings throughout the book, real or invented, did get tedious after a while and I ended up skimming thru those sections by the end.

also I was totally shocked (perhaps I shouldn't have been) by the twist at the end and that made a lot of the rest of the book feel worth it to me. I was also really fascinated by the tone the book ended with and I'm still thinking about how I feel about that.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

pockymonster_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

dale1997's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Excrement, and Mass/school shootings

thetruthatallhazards's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship