Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Tampa, by Alissa Nutting

12 reviews

dandaloriian's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Rape

hannahdaisy4's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense fast-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

3.75

Very thought provoking and interesting. Made me wonder how pedophiles see themselves and understand their own behaviour. Unfortunately it’s probably quite an accurate reflection of these scenarios in the real world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual content, Child abuse, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Blood and Bullying

kattrent's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

3.5

Written incredibly well, but it is incredibly hard to read. This is splatterpunk in my opinion because of how it puts the spotlight on a very real issue, which is pedophilia, and how some teachers have seduced their students into a sexual relationship. It is worth reading just for the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

elaichipod's review against another edition

dark medium-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

4.0

Holy hell. This story is so disgusting. The author did an amazing job writing such a horrible, sociopathic character. Celeste is completely, utterly repulsive. Every single aspect of her is revolting and the fact that we got a first POV makes it even worse because we're literally in her head when she does all this. I had to skip a lot of the explicit scenes because it was just too much. I found myself shaking in anger at times. I really wanted there to be more repercussions so the ending was a bit disappointing, but I'm sure it reflects how a lot of trials go for pedophilia and rape.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Death, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, and Stalking

sylvainxweber's review

dark tense medium-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

2.0

When it comes to writing a novel regarding a topic such as what's covered in this book, there is a very fine line between doing so in a tasteful manner and exploiting the same victims you are attempting to bring attention to. Unfortunately, despite how interested I was in this book, the way in which pedophilia is discussed is done so via the latter.

In Tampa, we follow the narrative of Celeste Price, a 26-year-old woman who preys on young boys within the classes that she happens to teach. She is completely uncaring about anyone else's desires and feelings except those of her own, and she jumps through some insane hoops in order to keep getting what she wants at the expense of others. Most notably, she grooms and assaults a boy named Jack throughout a vast majority of this novel, and is discussed in extremely graphic detail.

Explicit language that does not hold back on the reader can be insanely effective and is not something I am against or necessarily grossed out by. However, the narrative of this novel seems to wholly rely on shock and vulgar sexuality as a crutch for the plot, which doesn't really work the further you get into the novel as you tend to get desensitized and used to Celeste's manner of thinking. No doubt was it realistic for Celeste to be such a sexually charged character when you take into context of her being a remorseless sexual predator, but it just happened to become repetitive and I found myself painfully dragging my eyes through walls of text that I felt I had seen millions of times.

Similarly, there were times where the novel seemed to get uncomfortably erotic. Again, when taking Celeste's character into account, such a concept would make sense if it was done so in a more tasteful and less exploitative manner. Many of the graphic scenes involving Celeste abusing Jack certainly are detailed, but the way they are framed tries to make the reader feel entranced or excited in response, which I felt was incredibly unnerving and inappropriate.

There were a lot of interesting ideas and concepts touched on this book which involve double standards regarding male and female pedophiles, along with having certain privileges based solely off one's appearance. However, these certainly felt watered down, and I think much of that had to do with how sexually charged the narrative was, which then made it almost feel like they were thrown in at the last second to have some sort of trite attempt at social and moral commentary.

Alissa Nutting definitely has a talent when it comes to writing antagonistic protagonists and morally-grey characters, but I feel that the subject of pedophilia and the assault of younger children could have been handled a lot better. I don't think that Nutting intended for the audience to view these scenes in a positive way at all, but she certainly should have done more research and sought more feedback while writing those scenes.

Despite the fact I didn't enjoy the novel as much as I thought I would, I do like Nutting's courage and willingness to attempt to discuss such a taboo subject. Since this was only her debut novel, I certainly look forward to reading more from her and see how she grows as an author in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Vomit and Gaslighting

molly_ashton_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

reader00's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Grief, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Child death, Alcoholism, Murder, Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Injury/injury detail, Infertility, Fatphobia, Cursing, Body shaming, and Alcohol

dosxhime's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

3.5

I legitmiately had to take a break after reading that ending. Tampa is gross given the subject matter, but I found Celeste's predatory appraoch interesting and how awful her character is entertaining to anaylze and dissect. After the climax of the novel, it felt like a horrible fever dream and the ending was bleak.  

There are so many flaws to Celeste's plan if people took the time to notice her behavior. I am just emotionally exhausted by how horrible this protag is 


3.5 / 5 C-

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

mediumshort's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence