Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Priča o novom prezimenu by Elena Ferrante

24 reviews

aurora_is_reading's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

4.75

I read My Brilliant Friend and I thought it was quite good but maybe a bit overhyped. However, I saw my local library had the whole quartet and thought ‘let’s see what happens next’. This second instalment is a cerebral soap opera. So many key and memorable moments, great character development… I found all the characters relatable in different ways. I was hooked despite the fact that this novel has a lot of characters and not much dialogue compared to the amount of events going on. Excited to keep engaging with these characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

baddgerose's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective 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

4.25

So much drama but slow and realistic, churning life in a small town with claws that hold you in maybe the only way out is to run away or work yourself into university but then what? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

aleilvandrea's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Suicide, Terminal illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

teniamonet's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I read this book digitally but paired it with the audio book and it was a lovely reading experience as usual. Ferrante is a powerful writer and in my opinion she does a good job at evoking emotions and thoughts within her readers. 

The first book starts us off with Lila’s disappearance but quickly throws us in the childhood of Lenú and Lila. The second book we see the girls, now young women navigate their adolescence and living completely different lives; Lila starting married life and Lenú continuing on with her studies. 

The order was: be a man, Ste’; either you subdue her now or you’ll never subdue her; your wife has to learn right away that she is the female and you’re the male and therefore she has to obey. 

Ferrante writes about marriage, sexism, and domestic violence in such a raw way that I’ve never fully seen in any other book I’ve read before. These women fall into the cycle of being okay with their husbands abusing them because that is what is the norm as their mothers, and aunts and other women in the community do not warn them of this life. In fact the women in Lila’s life don’t even seem to bat an eye when she appears with bruises. As young girls there is a level of whimsy around what it means to be a wife and to be married and Lila and Lenú realize quickly it’s not what they imagined.

I soon realized that, being married, she was more alone than before. I sometimes went out with Carmela, with Ada, even with Gigliola, and at school I had made friends with girls in my class and other classes, so that sometimes I met them for ice cream on Via Floria. But she saw only Pinuccia, her sister-in-law. 

This book brought up thoughts that I didn’t realize I had about marriage and identity as a woman. Men stay the same married or not, but as a women you move out of your family home and your name changes and while your family will always be your family the new life and family you will start with your husband by society’s standards will take up more importance.

What was it, an indirect object of place? Did it mean that she now lived now with her parents but with Stefano? Did it mean that the new house where was going to live would have on the door a brass plate that said “Carracci”? Did it mean that if i were to write to her I would no longer address the letter to Raffaella Cerullo but to Raffaella Carracci?

There’s so many more things I could talk about the infidelity between Lila and Nino and the impact that had on Lenú who had been in love with Nino for as long as she could remember. Many times during this book I brought into question if Lila truly loved Lenú because she continued to hurt her constantly. I was also upset with Lenú because she had no backbone and couldn’t stand up for herself or the things that she wanted. 

“I didn’t like Signora Lina. You are much better, you’re prettier and more intelligent. I talked about it with the Sarratores, too, and they agree with me.”
“You say that because you love me.”
“No. Pay attention, Lenú. I know that you are good friends, my cousin told me. And I don’t want to interfere in things that have nothing to do with me. But a glance is enough for me to judge people. Signora Lina knows that you’re better than her and so she doesn’t love you the way you love her.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Sexism

carojust's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

Oh, I'm emotionally invested. Definitely read these in order. This book builds on Elena and Lina's lives after Lina's wedding, and we follow them into young adulthood with the same gravity and detail as the first book.

The first half was a drag for me, and suddenly I raced through the second half in a day, after the turning point during their beach vacation. Nino Sarratore, count your days.

Lina, who bothered me only a little in the first book, absolutely drove me up the wall in this one. I have a friend who made the same decisions in real life as this character does, and am stunned at the exact psychological pattern both follow. Elena Ferrante has a power in reflecting precise emotions and turmoil that are so frighteningly real.

I'm left so satisfied with how Elena's life is evolving, and while there are no winners in this story, I'll continue rooting for her, the idea of her that I hold inside myself. 

I think it's the obsessive inadequacy, the verbose and constant reflection, the natural tendency to empathize, that makes this series feel like womanhood, itself. I better understand why this series has captured so many of us. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and War

annamgoodman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

graciegrace20's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Infertility and Classism

lexcellent's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Classism

sineadlgull's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective 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

Great book with strong character/relationship development. Characters and majorly flawed yet interesting and strangely loveable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Murder

jenni28's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

5.0

I adored this book. 

I received the first of the Neapolitan Quarter as a Christmas gift and devoured it, but the second instalment I loved even more. I read this in almost one sitting! 

This book made me feel a lot of things… 

I went through a bit of a rollercoaster with almost every single character, on one page feeling compassion and empathy for their struggles, by the next feeling utterly enraged by their pettiness and self-centred attitudes.

With Lina, for example, you can’t help but feeling a heartfelt sense of pity given how quickly her young marriage descends into a prison of abuse and unhappiness. At the same time, there were parts of this book where her treatment of Elena really disgusted me, and I wanted to scream at Elena to stop letting her friend walk all over her. But in this novel, as in life, nothing is simple - and that really comes through in the realism of Ferrantes writing.

Every character is so well-written, so believable and so enraging at times that you can’t help but be absorbed by their lives, by a story where not very much happens in terms of plot, but where I was totally glued to the page.  

This book often gets sold as a book about female friendship, and I suppose that is true at the most basic level. But the parts that I found most compelling dealt with 1960s Italy, especially through the prism of class. Without being didactic, I think it was a beautiful exploration of how culture, family, friendships, social relations, communities and art are all affected by our class and our upbringing. 

Despite her great success by going to University and writing a novel, Elena is almost constantly frozen by what I can only describe as “imposter” syndrome. She had a constant feeling of self doubt, never feeling good enough, that always seems to harken back to her competitive relationship with Lina or her embarrassment and shame about her own background. Lina, on the other hand, despite gaining wealth and success, feels trapped in a loveless and abusive marriage due to her social conditions. She is eventually able to break free, but not without huge consequences that affect her life and that of her whole family and community.

I was totally immersed in this book. Can’t wait to read the third instalment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Classism