Reviews tagging 'Violence'

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

35 reviews

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: Violence, Murder, and Ableism

pierreadsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Mass/school shootings, and Child death

Moderate: Bullying and Medical content

Minor: Sexual content and Animal death

goblinghost_39's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Violence, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, and Gun violence

commisnob's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Domestic abuse, and Animal cruelty

iiisabelle's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Death, and Cursing

Minor: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, and Genocide

hysrae's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Mass/school shootings, Death, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Incest, Medical content, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

mmccombs's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

2.5

What a heavy and kind of obnoxious book! I did enjoy the mood and the way it was organized, but it was just entirely too long. It felt like a slog to get through, I did not need Eva’s opinions on literally everything, we know she’s kind of the worst so let’s keep it moving! Lots of r-words and racist and homophobic and fatphobic things in this book, too. Which again, Eva and her family are not good people so all of those things made that more obvious, but after a while it just got old.  I think the heart of this story is a compelling one, but I just didn’t care for much of the execution.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Violence, Murder, and Child death

klwpvfc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Violence

madelinequinne's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Well this certainly cemented the fact that I don’t ever want kids. Kevin continuously made me so angry throughout this novel, and the absolute heartbreak i felt at the end when we find out he murdered his little sister too, that just absolutely broke me. This is such a difficult book at times because of how awful the topic is, but overall I would just describe this book as sad. It’s incredibly well written, and this is the most emotion i’ve ever felt after reading a book to date, so brb, gonna go cry 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Eating disorder, Blood, Death of parent, Classism, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Racism

thereadingdude's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Child death

Moderate: Rape and Child abuse

Minor: Body horror, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs