Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Избранные и прекрасные by Нги Во, Nghi Vo

14 reviews

tinyjude's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective 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

3.75

I really wanted to love this. Unfortunately I feel it fell short to my expectations, perhaps because I was acquainted with the author's other works and I didn't realise this was the first one published. I felt like Nghi Vo wanted to dwell on several topics but barely grazed over them in the end, much in the Great Gatsby itself. The writing style and characterization is very similar so props to Vo for that, because still they felt like Original Characters. The good thing mainly is that we follow Jordan's pov, whereas in the original she was a secondary character, and this book takes the queer subtext and just screams at you QUEER QUEER QUEER in almost every page subtlety and loudly, simultaneously.

Despite that, Jordan's heritage and how the political landscape of the time will affect her are barely addressed by. Her paper cutting magic and the magic realism aspects could have been used more prominently and the queerness of, especially Nick and Jordan, could have been explored in more detail. It felt as if still we only got them as a couple who were each fascinated by Daisy and Jay, rather than madly in love with them. I get it was supposed to feel confusing but I think it didn't translate that well into the text.

The interpretation about the souls was interesting, thou.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Physical abuse, Violence, Trafficking, and War

writewithapendragon's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is short but it took me a longer time to read than I expected. Vo’s prose is beautifully poetic, each word carefully chosen. I want to go back and annotate, I enjoyed the language so much. Gatsby itself is so over-done that I wasn’t expecting this to be so unique and captivating, but it is a truly singular work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

katierobertsonshaddix's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and War

lolajh's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.75

Wow. What a rollercoaster. Such a promising lead up,

I loooooved Jordan in the original, and was really rooting for an eventual romance between her and Daisy in this 😫 It fr would have been so perfect for Daisy to realise at the very end she didn’t care for Tom or Gatsby and instead Jordan had been there waiting for her the whole time. They kissed and had such a homoerotic relationship already it would have been perfect

but a much weaker middle

Nick and Jordan’s relationship made me so mad it was so toxic and jordan didn’t even really like him

and end

WHAT THE FUCK EVEN HAPPENED

, especially regarding the magical realism fantasy bits that I really feel didn’t properly meld with the rest of the book. A lot of things were really disappointing, especially regarding the likability of Jordan as a main character when she was one of the only redeeming qualities I could find about the original.  Jordan seemed quite manipulative and fake a lot of the time, and none of this was really explained.

A perfect explanation for her choosing to stay with Nick all that time while she internally complained about him would be that she was FUCKING IN LOVE WITH DAISY yet she never (properly) admitted that and instead just gaslighted Daisy at the end when they were so close to actually addressing their relationship. Even if they just remained friends, I would’ve loved to see them have a happy ending together, even if Jordan had to go with her and Tom. I feel like the fight between them over Gatsby running over that girl was weird and Daisy was just obviously traumatised like everyone else was by seeing a dead body, especially when Daisy actually saw Gatsby kill them and then went through him dying as well.

I loved Daisy, honestly wishing all the best for her and was rooting for her the whole time. Her character is just so real, I loved her in the original as well and think she was written well in this. Just the direction this book went and different weird elements like the fantasy stuff and a hint of incest???? Where jordan got jealous of Daisy flirting with Nick (Daisy and Nick are cousins????) Weird plot point, but anyway. I shouldn’t have gone into this hoping for certain things

like a sapphic romance

because the author never promised that and that isn’t fair. Was still disappointed anyway, but oh well!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Car accident

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Abortion, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

auudrey's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Sexual content

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Abortion, and Alcohol

voxelbee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Classism

hngisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

Minor: Violence, Colonisation, and War

abominablesnowaro's review against another edition

mysterious reflective 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

3.75

Points for diversity and queer characters. Some points off for connecting them to demons and doubling down on the antisemitism from The Great Gatsby (but only in a brief mention). Overall weird, but pretty good

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Physical abuse and Antisemitism

mateoj's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

definitely a take on Gatsby worth reading, though it felt a little thin in terms of its own worldbuilding. I enjoyed it very much, and I'm not exactly mad at it, but I wish the fantasy world Vo created here was explored in more depth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

aardwyrm's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I wasn't one of the poor children caught by the Great Gatsby in high school, either in one of those long-running grudges against the concept of symbolism after too many conversations about green lights and painted eyes, or caught like a character by the glamor. It was just a book. This is a much more interesting and meaningful book, through the simple expedients of handing the camera to a more interesting person and reflecting on the world, not just the idea of the world. Also there's some demons and stuff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Car accident, Abortion, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death and War