Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Book of Mother by Violaine Huisman

12 reviews

brianareads's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

kirbyii's review

emotional sad fast-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: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Abortion

metamorphesque's review

dark emotional funny mysterious 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

• easily 5 stars, I do not even have to think twice about it although with how intense and extreme the book is at times I suspect readers will either love or hate it naturally i am in the love camp 
• an imperfect novel-memoir on generational trauma, that stuns and shocks; essentially a well-written account of growing up with a mentally unstable mother who is both a force of nature and deeply fragile 
• looking at the deepest, darkest, most sensational aspects of their family history
• touching, claustrophobic at times, and also loving, emotive, sensitive, and disturbing overall
• Part I of the book chronicles Huisman’s extensive mother-damage, Part II tells her mother Catherine's own story and Part III returns to Huisman's story and is all sentimental
• incredibly cynic at times which I loved and funny in a dark, twisted and disturbing kind of way 
• I adore the writing style only read the english translation, i can only imagine the original in french is superb

"As for the woman who had existed before giving birth to me, I had no access to her. To me, Catherine could only ever be a work of fiction. So I endowed her with my fantasy of what might have been her history, her thoughts, her choices. Of course, she had told me the story of her life in great and contradictory detail, but to give shape to her I had to imagine her, interpret her. I had to become the narrator of her story in order to give her back her humanity. "

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Abortion

sexual objectification and something that is almost incest; bloody abortion and unplanned pregnancy

biblioghoul's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Medical content, and Medical trauma

rcsreads's review

dark 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

0.25

"The truth of a life is the fiction that sustains it."
 .
 At a mere 211 pages this somehow managed to feel like the longest book ever written. It was so incredibly repetitive and I was sick to death of hearing how rich daddy was! The characters despite being based on real people were incredibly one dimensional and impossible to care about. By the end I was skimming just to get it over with, if it had been any longer it would have been a DNF. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Classism

_chonklord_'s review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

annecharlotte_reads's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

La première chose à dire c'est que Violaine Huisman a une très belle plume et impose d'emblée, avec cette première autofiction, un nom et une identité forte. Je me suis trouvée immédiatement happée par l'étourdissante force de son amour pour une mère aimante, abusive, sublime et profondément malade. Deux parties à la première personne encadrent un récit à la fois empathique et distancié, à la troisième personne, qui constitue la véritable lettre d'amour à sa mère. Elle lui rend en effet ce qu'elle a toujours réclamé, sa pleine individualité de femme. Il y a quelque chose d'incestueux, comme elle le suggère plus loin, dans cette écriture qui restaure la mère disparue dans sa chair et la violence de ses peines et de ses désirs. Il y a une forme de violence aussi, consciente, dans sa façon de se glisser ainsi dans la peau de la fugitive pour la coucher une fois pour toutes sur le papier, fixer le récit de sa vie que la mère avait échoué, nous dit Violaine Huisman, à formuler de manière définitive. En émerge une autrice-narratrice à jamais marquée par la passion/violence dévorante de sa mère, consciente de son impact et défiant malgré tout la lectrice : oui, elle était terrible, oui j'ai souffert, mais garde à qui oserait ternir sa mémoire, dont je me suis fait la gardienne. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Abandonment

lwalla01's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-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

3.25

I don’t know how to rate this or really how to think about this yet. 
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Having sat with this book for a little while, I think this book isn’t organized as well as it could have been. This book is part true story and part fiction. It’s classified as fiction because nothing in it is fact checked. This is essentially told from the authors memory, and by what she thinks happened from her mother’s point of view. The section told from her mother’s point of view is very compelling. However, as a whole I didn’t find myself as engaged in the story. This was on the long list for the Man Booker International Prize in 2022, and of what I have read so far it’s the weakest of the list.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

abbie_'s review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Abortion, and Death of parent

emilyacres's review

dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, and Abandonment