Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Paradise Rot

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval

19 reviews

littki's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-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? No

3.0

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ivan_tw's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

A lovely, creepy little lesbian horror story in which the plot moves like it's drowning in a bowl of milk. The prose is very dreamlike and Kafkaesque, and in truth very little actually happens, but I was still invested and wanted to make it to the end. LOTS of rotting fruit and bodily functions (urine, menstruation, etc), so your mileage may vary if you find that sort of stuff gross or uncomfortable, but beyond that it wasn't too disturbing or frightening. Made for a great, quick Halloween read.

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nerdatlas5's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

Very lurid and visceral. The piss scenes are descriptive and gross, so if you're really not interested in that don't read, but it's not as bad as I was expecting based on other's responses. It was easy to be immersed in this weird fever dream, and I'm still not sure what was real and what wasn't. It's a great exploration of the gross physicality of desire and obsession, but I think the ending ended just a little too soon, which is what keeps me from giving it 5 stars.

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vickyoyarzun's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Loveable characters? No

3.75

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librarymouse's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

Similar to her later book Girls Against God, Jenny Hval's Paradise Rot queers the human body through its association with decay, excrement, and bodily fluids. The whole book reads as a fever dream and ends with Jo having moved out, struggling to remember the details of Carral, rotting and sick from their shared apartment. Time moves slowly in the narrative, but the passing of time is denoted by the rotting of the apples that their relationship was predicated on. The thread of Carral's com-het, and the consistent creepiness of their writer neighbor managed to sustain the majority of the dread in the novel, whereas the anachronistic mushrooms and the motif of rot served as an addition of surrealism. Aspects of the novel are frustratingly relatable as a renter with landlords who don't take care of mold problems. As a librarian, Carral's desecration and theft of a library book are more frustrating than markers of the illicit.

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lwilson43's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What an odd little read... Hval takes this deceptively simple story about one woman's sexual awakening and creates an environment out of it, complete with all the nuances and complexities that come with it. But when the fungus takes hold, sometimes it can be a bitch and a half to tear it out, almost like it was tearing myself away from Hval's words!

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