Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

8 reviews

toothpastefairy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Screaming, crying, and throwing-up throughout. 

Marian is someone who you desperately want to hug and throttle at the same time. Devastating and heartwarming, the novel's end is poignantly built in a way you could not predict from the start. Each character is crafted with care and depth, their lives reach across the pages to brush each other and arrest the reader's heart. 

Overall, brutal and tender.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Abortion, Violence, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Rape, War, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Death, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, and Gun violence

alyssanue's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

Maybe I am not the right reader for historical fiction or I had the wrong expectations for this book but this story did not really grip me. It would have been a 1/5 or even a DNF if not for the last 150 or so pages. The whole book I was waiting for the adventure that set the plot for this story and it only came at the very beginning and, although beautifully written, did not make up for the 450 pages I read to reach it. The story seemed to drag on and on (with an unnecessary amount of weird sexual scenes) and the adventure, for which I had picked up the book, felt too rushed.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual harassment, and Adult/minor relationship

saville08's review against another edition

Didn't read warnings and should have don't like books about kids being abused. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, and Toxic relationship

frogknitting's review

adventurous reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

The good: it was extremely well researched. The realism was very high, and I enjoyed the individual lines of prose. 

However, the longer I read the book, the more it started to grate on me. This book really, really didn't need to be as long as it was. The movie bits, while entertaining, were so sparse throughout that they seemed pretty much useless. They could've done something with how the public perceives her now as an epilogue type thing. 
Also, this book is extremely sexual. There aren't even any real sex scenes within it, but essentially everyone has sex with everyone else (an exaggeration, but not much of one), and people commit adultery like it's nothing. There's no way this many people would be alright with that, this many times. 
The first half of the book was more compelling, but it drug on for so long. It spend so much time

Spoiler

with Barclay, that when she left him, it seemed like we were just running along. Okay, this happens, now this, now this. There was barely anything about the flight itself!!

Also, idk, something made me uncomfortable about them bringing in Sitting in the Water Grizzly as a comparison to Marian, a white woman who is more comfortable in men's clothes. Now I know about a queer Indigenous historical figure, but he wasn't represented well in this story at all. 
Another thing: the characters in this seemed like vessels with which to tell the story. I read about Marian for 650 pages and I really didn't care about her once I was done with the book. I couldn't tell you much about her. She's determined? Loves to fly? Masculine and doesn't want a stereotypical relationship? Same for most of the other characters. Hadley was more fleshed out, but we saw so little of her that it didn't really matter.
Finally (finally!) I didn't like the ending.

Spoiler

It seemed like a cop out — you thought Marian died? Of course she didn't, you just think that because that's what's expected! She found some random guys and hid with them before running away to New Zealand, although that wasn't foreshadowed at all throughout the book! It was a rushed ending, and I wasn't a big fan of it.

This book could have done with serious editing and cut backs. By the end, I was just skimming. I think it would've been better at about 400 pages without the Hadley/movie subplot, as interesting as it was. Alternatively, focused it more on a half/half split between the two, instead of the 90% Marian that we got. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Death, Alcoholism, Sexual content, War, Infidelity, and Medical content

Moderate: Rape

nicoleamanfu's review

adventurous reflective sad slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Pregnancy, Addiction, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, War, Dysphoria, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Gore, Sexism, Alcoholism, Abortion, and Death

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Hate crime

prettycloud's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I kept catching myself wanting a movie of this book, even though I know book-movies are often disappointing, and indeed the book itself shows how much movies can miss. But this book is so visually beautiful, a delight for the mind's eye that draws from perspective characters' longings and aesthetic sensibilities to set its scenes. Though it is a long book, I never felt weighed down—when the plot doesn't move forward, the characters do, and this book is much about people's relationships to themselves and each other as it is about Graves attempting her "great circle." I liked the meditations on disappearance and death, on people's purpose in life and the interactions of chance and fate. This book has so much life in it, so much energy and realness and joy. And yet it also explores the legendary, and there is a pervading larger-than-life feeling even as we read about Marian's day-to-day life. It will be a while before I finish processing this one, because the questions it asks are woven so neatly into the story itself, but they're there. I guess, bottom-line, if you find yourself spending too long reading the Wikipedia articles of celebrities, this book might be for you.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, War, Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Vomit, Abortion, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, Stalking, and Terminal illness

Minor: Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Child death, Body shaming, and Fire/Fire injury

About the adult/minor relationship:

Spoiler

There's a pretty extensive section where Marian is a teenager in a relationship with a gangster in his late twenties and early thirties. She loves and desires him, but he stalks, extorts, and rapes her as he becomes more desperate to make her into the woman he wants.

The main themes of the book have to do with death and grief, so that and suicide by extension are very present throughout the book, though the deaths that happen are seldom described in great detail.

caroline_sele's review

challenging dark mysterious 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

2.75

It's a good book, but I don't like slow books. It was just a bit slow for me but I liked Marian's plot.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug use and Sexism

sunnydaysandairwaves's review

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse

Spoiler

Sexual abuse of a child