Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

El dios de las pequeñas cosas by Arundhati Roy

49 reviews

emzireads's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse and Vomit

sir_ren's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

firstly as someone from the state and familiar with the culture- I have to laud the author for her observations and addition of details that feel incredibly authentic (for lack of a better term) and made the novel feel so probable and real. the meticulously written particulars all seem to stem from an intimate knowledge of the place and its people. I do not mean Kerala and Keralites but of Ayemenam and those characters.    

the novel has a rather simple story- the main plot. even though I could predict the general plot of the story (as the novel is written switching from the past and the present) it was still engaging and interesting thanks to the writing and the details. the construction of the novel-  the unfolding of events and use of language make it satisfying and rewarding to see it all come together. 

the "Kid Speak" used in the novel tends to be polarizing as far as I can tell. some people put the book down to never complete it due to the language. not that I am in a place to be telling anyone what to do with their time, but I would still seriously encourage readers to stick it out even if they are mildly irritated by the peculiarities. my experience is that I found it puzzling at first and then interesting, but the novelty wore off soon and it started to feel badly used. but this changed as I kept reading, the way Arundhati Roy built her novel and used language- the payoff was Real for me. the "quirkiness" of the language turned into a blessing as the novel went on. Intimacy is what I experienced again. in a novel all about this family- to speak their secret language and to have a few odd words and phrases evoke all the emotions and thoughts that they did was a moment of intimacy with the novel and its characters. 

another point of contention tends to be the "villain", who some find to be a cartoonishly evil/bad person. in my opinion, the character was believable. 

now for the parts I did not enjoy. the book describes or mentions a lot of the uglier sides of human nature/bodies/actions. I felt the number of instances was a little excessive. maybe one or two could have been cut and the book could still retain its integrity. 
and I felt the Kid Speak could have been cut in a few places. but I am glad the language was what it was

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Blood, Excrement, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism

marisacarpico's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.25

Wasn’t connecting with this for most of it, but found the last 15 or so pages incredibly effective. I’ve not liked stream of consciousness for nearly 2 decades at this point and this didn’t change my mind. Lots of repetition here that didn’t work for me. Often found certain imagery effective the first time and rage-inducing 100x in. Probably deliberate on some level, but made this less of a stimulating read than I was hoping.

That said there are certain descriptions that were striking in their beauty or specificity. A description of a house as being like a sunken thing near the end especially made me pause. Mostly, though, the language is in service of a sort of grotesquery, a bluntness about life that’s as impossible to deny away from as what happens here.

I guessed the central family secret incorrectly (though it’s perhaps more accurate to say I placed it in the wrong part of the story), but the eventual reveal is such a powerful mix of both tragedy and cultural/historical specificity. And those last chapters are a big part of what give that central trauma and the surprisingly beautiful note. The books ends on its impact.

I will say, though I still don’t like stream of consciousness from moment to moment, I do think the structure here is astounding. Not just the way it ends, but the whole theater-going section, for instance, or they way things just build and build so that when everything is revealed, it all feels so inevitable, all of it flowing brilliantly from the characters and world Roy has shown us.

Truly, I did not enjoy the act of reading this book almost at all, but I certainly can’t deny the craft.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Incest, Misogyny, Sexual content, Grief, and Murder

mxpringle's review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

rcsreads's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.5

This is such a Booker Prize book. So unnecessarily wordy and pretentious.
 No-one has ever made sex or food sound so disgusting. Also, none of the gross sex descriptions are actually necessary to the story.
 I mainly kept going because the narrator on the audio book had such a calming voice. 
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

amandahjy's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

Written from the perspective of a pair of 7-8 year old "two egg twins" as they make sense of complex events that take place in their nation and personal lives, so the language can be quite sing songy and humorous at times (I didn't particularly enjoy this). But the book occasionally segments into this beautiful poetry and commentary on post colonialism in India, race, the caste system and the commodification of local culture for tourism.

Pacing of the novel is slow, and the storyline can get quite confusing, as it constantly jumps from when the twins were young children to adults. But I really enjoyed the last third of the book, when the story picks up and we find out what happens to Sophie Mol. 

(Also, the author seems to have an unhealthy obsession with "balls," which I don't get 😅)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

sunny_not's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

It was very dark, brutal and hard hitting. I think that you should be in the mind space to read this to be able to read this since the content warnings list is very long. Also the language was very poetic which was nice most of the time but sometimes it made this quite hard to read. Overall a really important piece of literature but I really wished there wouldn't be incest in this... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

aaronjdilkes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Grief, and Death of parent

courfee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

The writing style is absolutely gorgeous, and Roy handled the themes with the painful beauty of the scars they leave. I would give 5-stars if the descriptions weren't so wrapped up in metaphor that it's difficult to understand what's actually happening.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Blood and Death of parent

Minor: Child death

sunflowersinta's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment