Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

290 reviews

franzys_whip's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Murder, Lesbophobia, and War

kubs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

5.0

What an beautiful book. Spanning multiple generations of a family with allusions to the political climate of Chile. Its depth and breadth are incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, War, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Chronic illness and Car accident

crumpledjuicebox's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Blood

hendrixpants's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Animal death, Death, Rape, Violence, and Murder

ohilucy's review against another edition

challenging 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Torture

kayaelena's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

alyssaakdefusco's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

A whole journey! I absolutely love generational historical fiction like this. And I'll start backwards by saying the last several chapters absolutely FLOORED me. I was crying by the last page. The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is that this book is loooong and it had me feeling confused by some of the character choices up until the very end! It took me a while to read. Parts of it were sluggish and a lot of really crappy stuff happens. Plus for most of the book you're bounced back and forth by a 3rd person narrator and then a 1st person narration by the main male character of the book who is a racist r*pist, so that really threw me off. But seriously, it is worth a read just to get to the end. I've never experienced that much of a turnaround with a book and so much justification for such a long and hard to read first 3/4 of a book! Phew. It's helpful to do some research about the historical context of Chile in the 1st half of the 20th century too because Allende is ultimately telling that story through the lens of this family. I didn't realize that until about half way through! My bad. Anyways, here's my favorite passage from the book that sums up what I loved so much about it and what was revealed to me at the very end:

"She was one of those stoical, practical women of our country, the kind of woman who has a child with every man who passes through her life and, on top of that, takes in other people's abandoned children, her own poor relatives, and anybody who needs a mother, sister, or an aunt; the kind of woman who's the pillar of many other lives, who raises children to grow up and leave her and lets men leave her too, without a word of reproach, because she has more pressing things to worry about. She looked like so many others I had met...I told her she had an enormous risk in rescuing me, and she smiled. It was then I understood that the days of the fascists were numbered, because they have not been able to destroy the spirit of these women."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Incest, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Abortion, and Murder

dollarsignimp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

kalizahira's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious 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

3.75

I enjoyed this book. It weaves together five generations of an unusual and powerful family with the history of an evolving country. I enjoyed the magical realism elements and the matter-of-fact handling of brutality as part of life. It features some hateful characters with little self-awareness and much entitlement who never really take stock of those they doom with their violence. I appreciated the characters having different names but still, the multiple viewpoints and many characters make the story require active reading to stay enmeshed in the story. It is a fascinating and quirky story and well worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Rape, Violence, and Classism

certainlynotpolina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Trafficking

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Incest, Miscarriage, Vomit, and Death of parent