Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Annotated Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

155 reviews

nisha_111's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Rape, Incest, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Death, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Murder, Pedophilia, and Stalking

saramaiabarbas's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Emotional abuse, Incest, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

k0i's review against another edition

Heavy trigger warnings to watch out for. It is definitely a controversial book yet it also feels slow. I wouldn’t quite say one-dimensional, but the focus of the storyline is definitely unreliable. But once again, I didn’t finish this story so please don’t put complete faith in me. Read it if you want, at your own discretion of course. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Infidelity

jcstokes95's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

2.25

 

Look, it’s not even that I have an issue with the grotesque content. I have no problem with books about morally fucked characters and there is a place for literature even I think it’s subject matter it bonkers. I just do not like this writing style at all. I recognize I am probably in the minority here. But I found this very difficult to get through. 

I don’t have a nice organized through process on this, so let’s do bullet points: 

-> I appreciated the purposeful mix of salacious moments while Nabokov veils the actual act of rape throughout the text. It gives us the sense Humbert knows his crimes are heinous and immoral; he knows his invisible jury would damn him immediately if described. 

-> I found the most interesting portion to be the few end chapters, where Dolores is grown and we get some glimpse into how this ends for her. Part of my reason for reading this text is I would like to read My Dark Vanessa, which is a response to Lolita. I think I will find that more interesting as it promises to get into the head of the manipulated. 

-> While I know “too much French” isn’t a real criticism of a book, I would love if the publisher of my copy had put some damn translations in. Nabokov seems obsessed with puns (like his narrator) and language. Seems a shame to not get the whole of that context. If you can find an edition with notes, that might increase your reading experience of this. 

-> The fact that there are people who actually still read this as a love story or story of mutual seduction is wild. Jail! Prison! Send them to jail! Gross! 

-> I really do find this writing style grating. This is personal preference. I thought it was the narrator’s choices intentionally making it so. But my copy has a letter Nabokov wrote after publication at the end, and I can confirm that was written in a strange style too. Fascinating content though, at the end he seems majorly annoyed that he has to stop writing in Russian, where he thinks he was superior and instead use English for his novels. In general, this makes me more interested in how bilingual novelists feel about writing in various tongues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Incest

Moderate: Death of parent and Murder

catjoelle's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

jesstroughton's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.25

I really hated this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Incest, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

rosesbooks24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Grief, Car accident, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

maryannelikescoffee's review against another edition

dark fast-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: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Car accident, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

maureenky's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

2.0

Christ this was so long for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I'm rating it a 2 solely based on the fact that there were parts of the book that I felt like Dolores was getting the better of the main character. Otherwise, the prose is exceptionally dry and quite frankly, extremely out of sorts for 85% of the book. It's labeled as a classic due to its dryness, and taught in classrooms due to the fact that that there are many places a professor could find their pupils slipping up and not reading the material.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Stalking, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Murder, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Car accident, Incest, and Gun violence

ylime_103's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse