Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Animal by Lisa Taddeo

135 reviews

pourquoipas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

 I don’t even know where to go from there. This book was a gut punch followed by a sucker punch and then a big hug. 
The beginning was a bit too slow. It’s difficult making a connection with the protagonist, but towards the end Taddeo is able to make the reader some sympathy towards her. 
At times I found myself wondering if I had missed a page. The transitions are fast, the details are painful and tormenting, and the emotions are deep and disturbing. 

Lots of triggers not for everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

haleydoeshairs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Death of parent, Dementia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Physical abuse

alex_likesbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.25

i loved and hated this book. It was SO slow and heavy in the beginning but when everything started unraveling i couldn’t put it down. It was super depraved (duh) and dark and disturbing. I do wish i read TWs before just to know what i was getting into, I went in blind. I did like the portrait of female rage portrayed and a lot of the points brought up about how women are viewed by society and by men. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Child abuse, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Suicide, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Infertility

yesbethhh92's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense 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

5.0

“All my life, all the men taking what they wanted and leaving when it was over.”

Wow wow wow. This was incredible. 

In Animal, Joan flees New York after witnessing a horrible act of violence. From there we follow her to Los Angeles, where she seeks out a woman named Alice for reasons that are slowly uncovered.

Joan reflects back on her life since childhood, recalling her relationship with her parents and a traumatic experience that affected the rest of her life and dictated all her future relationships with women and men. 

This book is about the entitlement, cruelty and entitlement of men, and how this manifests in women as pain, rage and madness.

I could feel the primal rage growing in me as I read this book, and the tension kept building to an emotional and devastating end. 

Lisa Taddeo is a master with words, and I love the way she created parallels between the stories of the different characters. 

I loved this so so so much. I wasn’t sure about it early on, and took some breaks from it because it’s quite slow in the earlier chapters. But once it gets going, it really gets going, and by the end I was crying.

I highly recommend this but check trigger warnings first as there as some graphic parts. 

“It was my father who had driven my mother mad. But once again, mad is not right. The world had set me up to believe that it was women who went mad. It was simply women's pain that manifested as madness.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Murder, Suicide, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.0

I don't know how to feel about this book. I resonated with a lot of its themes and assertions about the ceaseless violence men commit against women and the ways our entire inner lives are shaped by the men we're exposed to, and I appreciated Joan's unabashed commitment to voicing the darkest parts of herself. But I found the plot kind of tiring, definitely disturbing, and vaguely performative; it felt a little redundant of other books I've read like it before, like The Girls and Bright Young Women, and it was not an enjoyable read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Sexism, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Gore, Pregnancy, Rape, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug use, Violence, Grief, and Vomit

matlock's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Dementia, Child abuse, Child death, Suicide, Sexual violence, Blood, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Dementia

justine014's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

3.5

Really not sure how I feel about this. Enjoyed the prose a lot, though it veered into overly long descriptions at times. Appreciated many of the observations about sex and gender dynamics, though some of Joan’s perspectives on both felt a bit dated, as if her character missed the last 15 years of feminist discourse, and I can’t tell if that was intentional due to her circumstances and also because she’s a bit older?? It also bothered me that characters would often not speak like normal people but instead went on long, incredibly polished monologues which did not feel realistic. Then again, I love Mike Flanagan’s TV shows and those do the same thing so idk why it bothered me here. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Sexual harassment

wildflower030's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

hanltosh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Abortion, Blood, and Death of parent

ev23's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.0

taddeo’s prose is beautiful and punchy but this story was so disjointed to me and definitely lagged in some parts. i think a lot of it read as kind of trauma porn almost ? definitely check the TWs. i guess i understand the hype around this book but it just did not land for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Blood, Miscarriage, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse