Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

261 reviews

matschel's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

This book hurt on so many different levels

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Death of parent

star101's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

brookebatesratesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Sexual harassment

pilartyping's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

saunak's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

3.75

This book was extremely hard for me to listen to and even harder to rate.
'Heaven' follows two middle-schoolers' treacherous bullying experiences. Initial frustrations and experiences slowly evolve into philosophical musings and questions to understand existence and nihilism. The author highlights everything from mockery due to physical appearance, morality, good vs evil, humanity or the lack of it, innocence or the loss of it, and more. Although spoken via fictional experiences of 14-year-olds (their words, thoughts, and actions are shocking and quite disturbing), the author vividly holds up a mirror to prick the audience's morality through these extremely uncomfortable cascading narratives. The end does have a positive note, but the book left a bitter aftertaste and truly so (what the author aimed for, I guess).

'...weakness matters, it has real meaning....but know what? If weakness matters so does strength and I don't mean weak people using the idea of strength to justify their weakness...'

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

nusta's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Violence

itsq42's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

This was a difficult read in part because of the psyche of the character whose perspective we hear the story from and in part due to the actions of the other characters.

It’s definitely a really vivid capture of the experience of childhood bullying and the ways that impacts the brain but that comes with all the downsides of living in that world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism and Body shaming

Minor: Confinement, Eating disorder, and Medical content

blackbegonias's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

sba_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide

serlui's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape