Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

290 reviews

racquellemulvey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

If you want to cry and become extremely moved, I do recommend. Artfully written, and I can see why one would require student to read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Classism

rberdan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-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

4.5

The Kite Runner is devastating and beautifully written. There are many content warnings to heed. I had to take breaks because of the heaviness, but that speaks also to how rich the storytelling was. Set in Afghanistan and the United States, this is a story of family trauma and secrets, betrayal, redemption, unconditional love, friendship, war, violence, class, power, and immigration. Yes, it’s a lot, and woven together artfully. 

From the joy of kite running to graphic abuse to the complexities of relationship, I felt so much of this book deeply. I’m a white woman from the Global North, so there are many aspects of this book that are far from my own lived experiences, and yet the desire to undo regret and redeem oneself, to simply be loved by those we admire most, and to get away from kindness that feels undeserved… these are things I can relate to. While I know conceptually of the history of the Taliban and of issues with immigration, there is an immersive reality in the storytelling that allowed me to understand in a different way. There is a recurring theme of shame and being loved anyway that is truly beautiful and touching. 

Amir’s own self loathing is so beautifully captured that I found myself struggling to like him much. Seeing his family and Hassan through his eyes was so interesting as I got to love them along with him. I ultimately could feel compassion for him as he found his way to loving others. I struggled to forgive him as he struggled to forgive himself, even though his greatest regret was still something he did (or didn’t do) as a child. 

All of that said, I also felt that there was almost too much “other people are good and I’m bad” in the story. I get that it’s Amir’s point of view, and I also feel that there’s more nuance than this in who we are as humans. 

In the end, I absolutely adored Sohrab and my heart broke for all that he’d endured at such a young  age. I ended the book with so much hope for what could be on the other side of his early days. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, War, and Classism

count_of_carabas's review against another edition

Rape

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Classism

kakankatten6000's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective 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

4.5

 I would like to preface this review by saying that I read the Swedish translation of this book, therefore some small details may be different from the original work.

I really enjoyed this book, it had a profound affect on me. In hindsight the plot is quite simple not that it does not allow for thought; Its simple yet impactful story is one of its biggest strengths.

There are few books that are emotionally powerful enough to make me cry, this book did make me tear eyed at several moments but one part made tears run down my face:

Amirs dad dies of cancer only a few weeks following Amir finally getting married to his long-spun crush. To see that Baba died a happy man felt so deserving and made me incredibly emotional.

I have immense respect for Khaled as a author, managing to summon such great emotion in me. I am incredibly grateful for the emotional experience this book gave me.

The book also documents Afghanistan's tragic history and the Taliban's brutal regime. Maybe not super accurately but it gives you a basic understanding, this really builds the world around you and you cant help but get consumed by the tail.

The book has quite large religious undertones which I enjoyed personally. I am not religious but I do find the the concept of fate very interesting which the plot is quite centralised around.

I did find the middle part of the story quite slow and boring. It did of course have several great moments, but I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe it could've been a little bit more densely packed. Despite this the build-up was worth it and the ending was truly amazing. To put in perspective if I could rate the parts of the story independently: 

Intro: 4.75
Middle: 3
Ending: 5

I recommend this book if you enjoy stories surrounding the complexity of human relations, fate, want to read a fiction built around real life events, or enjoy stories of characters going from assholes to heroes. 

Thanks Leo

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pedophilia and Violence

jenjones83's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I had a love-hate moment with this book. I couldn’t relate to the story so it was very sad to me and I had a hard time connecting with this book. However, I did find the story very tragic. I feel so bad for all of the people in this book. It was a great story but I don’t know that I would want to read it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Infertility, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and War

eed8's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, and Blood

allison_18's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War

rose_of_thenile's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad 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? Yes

4.5

An easy read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Ableism

unspeakabill's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, and War

kamranapologist123's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

The book, I honestly loved it so, so much. The themes of brotherhood was displayed throughout the entire book, yet it was subtle and I wasn’t expecting the plot twist at all. The emotive language of Hassan and just him in general, I literally aspire to be like him now.

Hassan’s death was kinda of a surprise, so I didn’t get to deep it tbh

 

But overall, the book was really, really good. You could see Amir’s development, ‘For you, a thousand times over.’ Anything that reminded him of Hassan would shed him to tears and I’m really happy Assef got what he got. I’d read this book a thousand times over.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Vomit, Police brutality, and Medical content

Minor: Alcohol