Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

77 reviews

euannn900'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

There is no doubt this novel is elegantly and well written but it is entirely impossible to enjoy reading it. Humber Humberts is an awful, piece of shit specimen of a person. Outside of the obvious fact that he is a pedophile

who rapes a 12 year old

, he spends the whole book defending his actions and obsessions, he's a male manipulator, controlling Lolita through blackmailing and physical abuse and is a mysoginist, not only to Lolita but to numerous other women throughout the book. All the while he claims that his disturbing, creepy and disgusting obsession with Lolita is love. Vladimir Nabokov should never have written this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Domestic abuse

ta_ma_ra_gj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Violence and Death of parent

aisclaradm's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

Really incredible. I was in a bit of a reading slump and it took me longer than it should have to get through the book, but I never didn’t enjoy it. Despite how vile the narrator and his actions are, there’s something strangely touching about how pathetic and hateful he is. Right from the very beginning until the very last page, this book was just beautiful, though one feels uncomfortable and disgusting throughout most of it. 

Sometimes a tad slow, but that’s more so an indictment of my attention span and less so of one on the book itself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Car accident and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

_christinadevin's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

4.25

Wtf, I mean writing-wise, Nabokov is genius, but the story is so much to take and it’s really heavy at times. I think that this is a slightly dangerous story for most people to read, because I’ve seen so many young girls identifying with Lolita and so many men who don’t actually see how abusive Humbert is. He may be unreliable narrator but he definitely mentions her crying to sleep and the fact that she ran away because he ruined her life but I can’t give critical thinking skills to everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

belsbooks06's review against another edition

challenging dark sad

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

kazli's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.25

god this book was heartbreaking. it follows a man named humbert humbert who falls in love with his step daughter, and you know it's wrong but because humbert is an unreliable narrator he makes you believe that he is actually in love with his 'lolita' when in reality she is just a child who wanted a normal life and a normal family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

jalyhn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I give this a high rating because it is written beautifully and an amazing book to annotate and analyze. I had so much fun picking apart everything Humbert did to find out what was >SPOILER<

an illusion or something he made up and what is real.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

caarlotta's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

5.0

so difficult to read yet one of my favorite books ever. THE WRITING is gorgeous, nabokov is truly a master writer, and the story is disturbing yet you need to finish the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent

ellisy's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Lolita, that highly controversial novel that set a before and after not only in American literature, but in modern culture as a whole. That love letter to monstrous indulgence, the attempt of a psychopath to redeem his soul and make his and his victim's lives one inmortal story. As he said "I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita".

Maybe one of the most remarcable things about this story is the way it's told. We are warned at the beginning of what this text really is: a confession and desperate attempt of a criminal to save himself. One that "should make all of us apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world". Its narrator, a pedophile that both tries to trick you into beeling his side of the story and recognizes what he's done, one you cannot fully believe since he himself said that "I have camouflaged what I could so as not to hurt people". Which he does in the most poetical kind of way, almost convincing you for some bits until you get to the most sordid parts and comments, that reminds you of what he really is.

Something really interesting about him is the juxtaposition between the romantic and the monster, between "concupiscent co-operation (or the illusion of it) to dirty old man, from romance to self-revolution, from reciprocation to the sordid solipsism of sperm on the hand. Nabokov's subject and Humbert's affliction is the discrepancy between the dizzy desire and the dingy thruth". As Humbert said "Despite the horrible hopelessness of it all, I still dwelled deep in my elected paradise—a paradise whose skies were the color of hell-flames—bit still a paradise". And as well recognized later on, "I loved you. I was a pentapod monster, but I loved you. I was despicable and brutal, and turpid, and everything, mais je t'aimais, je t'aimais! And there were times when I knew how you felt, and it was hell to know it, my little one. Lolita girl, brave Dolly Schiller". He knew that he was hurting her, but he kept on, he knew that he was monstrous, but he kept on, and this would have never ended, if Dolores wouldn't have scaped. 

Maybe that's why that's one of the most heartbreaking parts of the story. The criminal knew how sordidly he had ruined Dolores's live, but he kept on, telling himself that he loved her. He used this little child until she bled, he knew she hated him, and still tried to make himself and us believe that he was the misunderstood poet, the victim somehow. But still he doesn't lay flat, he is not just "the bad guy" he's a monster, but he has dimensions, a story to tell after and before, some humanness in him that still makes us feel sorry somehow, even if after we still feel sick of what he's done. 

Lolita is a terrifying story, in which not only a child was kidnapped but failed by the system that was supposed to protect her, by the people around them who had to have suspission that something was off, and even by the legacy it left, since Lolita became both a sexual figure and a "romance" story, with people commenting on the novel as "a record of Nabokov's love affair with the romantic novel". For me, it's the confession of a monstrous passion from the point of view of the aggressor, one that's written trying to cover what happened and you still see through the lies, one with multidimensional characters and story that fills you with rage, disgust and helplessness, and a narrative that tries to trick you. And for that, it's a masterpiece of the English language, a gem that's hard to look at, but you still should, a classic of American literature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Pregnancy

sombies's review against another edition

challenging dark tense

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

5.0

nabokov was crazyyy for this one. its wild how laser targeted his read is of the kind of joyless motherfuckers who fantasize about having complete control over little girls to avoid taking control of their own lives. ive known a humbert humbert and it's likely you know one too

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racism and Lesbophobia