Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry

19 reviews

mamabex's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This book is so hard to review because it is very well written with intense character development and from a very original angle, but it is also incredibly difficult to read with so many trigger warnings I don’t know where to begin. If I had known what it was about or how it would make me feel, I would not have read it and for that same reason, I cannot recommend it either.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pedophilia

k8lynn's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

this is the most difficult book i have ever read. i cried so hard. but it really opens up questions in your mind you never thought you'd ask.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

karleennz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

aleen_elizabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

carlycurry's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

gabrielaa's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, and Suicide attempt

diannemarini's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I don't understand why some people group Lucinda Berry with Freida McFadden. They're both so different.

This book made me feel. It was such an emotional book. I may not have cried but I can confidently say this will stick to me, maybe more if I have kids right now. The ending was shocking.

I'm right to hate THAT person from the beginning. 

Read this with caution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

cewhouser7405's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

nallelyjael's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Such a sad and eye opening insight into child pedophilia, the ultimate sacrifice of a mother, and the family dynamics of dealing with this topic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

kmwllce's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

I listened to this on audiobook while traveling, it’s about six and a half hours so if you have a ways to go, you can just about finish the book in your travel day. This combination definitely helped plow through slower parts - I was trapped at the airport or in a plane with nothing better to do but listen, and knew the book was only so long so it kept me listening. 

About 75% through this book, I was grasping for something to keep me reading (listening?) but I am really glad that I did because I think the book has been really thought provoking.

I’m a little disappointed in some of the reviews tbh, not only here but online elsewhere, and I feel like people are largely missing the point. Like all of them. Which gets in the way of valid criticism.

The book is written from Adrianne’s view. The disgusting comments she makes early on about Noah “just touching” the girls, how she continues to repeat that it is a non violent crime that won’t happen again, or when she is downplaying the girls’ experience and emphasizing Noah’s achievements, is NOT Lucinda Berry’s personal opinion on pedophiles. She is demonstrating the desperation of a mother trying to rationalize (you can’t) the child sexual assault. Her brain is trying to find someway to believe that the baby she held after she grew it cell, pushed him out of her, and raised him every day as a stay at home mom, is sexually assaulting children. It’s hard to read (more plug for the audiobook), but not an impossible reaction. It’s a grim but entertaining thought experiment (and more horrifying, actually happening throughout society). 

AND she has a minor at home (I think Katie is seven, if I picked up on that right and Noah SA’d two six year olds) AND her husband has completely shut down and abandoned their first-born and partner who is obviously being tortured by the whole experience.

I personally did not see the plot twist that Lucas was narrating the earlier chapters coming and I thought this was a delightful additional piece to chew on. I love stories that you will read/watch (listen?) differently after knowing what happens and think about the significance of earlier moments in retrospect. I did see the plot twist of Adrianne helping Noah commit suicide but I thought it was a pretty somber but touching concept.

I totally subscribe to the theory (unfortunately) that Lucas might’ve been assaulting Katie throughout the novel in hindsight. It’s not certain but there are things that would need to be investigated IRL:
- his original offense was a familial crime
- Katie stopped wetting the bed at 4 yrs, started wetting the bed again when Noah and Adrianne moved out, and stopped when Adrianne moved back in 
- Katie’s insistence on staying with Noah and Adrianne one night and her horrible diatribe about how she “doesn’t care if Noah touches her privates” and nonchalantness of such for her age 

I don’t think Lucas demanded Katie stay with him away from Noah with the intention of assaulting her, but he talks about backsliding in Him (Now) and doesn’t specify how, so it’s possible he lost restraint later on. I think he truly was initially horrified that this type of situation was arising in their lives again and abandoned Noah in attempt for self-preservation. 

I love that Adrianne is a tortured, unreliable narrator. Of course what she is saying is insane. She talks through the novel saying she hasn’t slept more than an hour or two a night for months-years, and the magnitude of what has gone on has broken her brain. Mercy-killing Noah is NOT the solution in any way and it’s wild that she got to that point. However, I can totally see how she would be driven to give up and agree with Noah’s hopeless 18-year old logic that this is never going to be a life that is purposeful or worth leading and should end his suffering now. 

It is not written great, it’s written pretty well. Not a happy one, but I’ll be chewing on the thoughts of what I would do in Adrianne’s shoes for a couple of days for sure. She was the only one even remotely left in that boy’s corner from early on in the book (other than Katie, who is just as much a victim of everything by the end of the book.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment