Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
28 reviews
nadia_not_there's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Moderate: Infidelity, Racism, Abortion, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, and Death of parent
alissa_the_barista's review
3.0
Graphic: Racism and Sexism
Moderate: Infidelity, Antisemitism, Abortion, and Alcohol
Minor: Death and Death of parent
gris_zorra's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and War
leannanecdote's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Hate crime, Sexism, Slavery, and War
freshbatchofbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia
Moderate: Infidelity, Antisemitism, and Abortion
Minor: Death and Death of parent
mysterymom40's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Moderate: Infidelity, Racism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abortion, Abandonment, and Classism
passionatereader78's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Infidelity and Racism
Moderate: Slavery, Abortion, and Pregnancy
Minor: Child death and Abandonment
marrireadsandrambles's review against another edition
2.5
Graphic: Infidelity, Racism, and Sexism
Moderate: Sexual content, Antisemitism, Abortion, and Pregnancy
Minor: Grief, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia
kaycie51782's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
This book covers a lot of deep topics, and it doesn't hold much back. Be warned: there blatant racism, misogyny, heavy alcohol consumption, abortion, abandonment...
My main criticism of the book is that it's told in first person, but it very deliberately and overtly points things out. I think telling it in omniscient third person would have felt less like I was hearing a summary than a story. It's like in video games where the next person you need to talk to is highlighted, the author basically points and says "Look at this" instead of molding it into the story.
The book is less about what is in the library (though it is discussed) and more about how she loves through the world carefully, deliberately, and choosing to hide in plain sight. It was a fascinating look at life in 1900s New York as a woman, moving in orbit around the ultra rich (Morgan, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, etc.) but being constantly terrified of having it all taken away.
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Antisemitism, Grief, Abortion, Alcohol, and Classism
satashii's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I was not impressed—hence the star rating. Belle does not undergo much character growth and still comes off as a Mary Sue to the very end.
The main character, Belle, is a real person but the historical accuracy suffers from the choice of first person narrative. A quick search on her name told me a lot more about her than this book did and I don’t think the book really did her story any favors. There is more than enough primary source material to have written a much better and fuller story. The book itself is overlong, the climax happens at about the 70-75% mark and then we spend another sixty pages on stuff that really didn’t feel necessary. A more focused book on one element of Belle’s life would have been more appropriate for the word count. I’ve never read anything else by these authors but after this I’m not really inclined to.
While I was sympathetic and interested in the viewpoint of a white-passing black woman who became a femminist icon of the suffragettes… this story really didn’t go into hardly any details about that. it’s a side show to the story of Belle having cringily written romantic attachments to much older men. It’s vaguely mentioned that she pretends to be younger than she is at the very beginning by six years but I wasn’t sure if she continued this ruse in addition to her other ones. Add in the trauma she undergoes and… then what? There’s so many things stuffed in by telling the reader about them that they don’t have very much emotional impact.
Mostly, this book just made me frustrated and tired. There’s a better story to be told here than the one I just read. I would not have finished the book if my bookclub hadn’t chosen it as our monthly read.
So one star for teaching me things about Belle’s father and another star for making me very curious about Anne Morgan and her friends. It sounds like they were all very remarkable woman and I suspect Belle was as well…. I just didn’t like this version of her very much.
I think I need another palette cleanser book to read after this one.
Graphic: Infidelity, Racism, Xenophobia, and Abortion
Moderate: Homophobia, Antisemitism, and Classism