Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

11 reviews

binreads's review

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? It's complicated

3.0

I highly recommend going into this blind like I did! You'll either love it or hate it.

It wasn't until the twist was staring me right in the face that I understood.

I was a bible study kid, so I'm surprised I didn't see it sooner but once Cascavel started laying it out I was like waaaaaaaaait a second, is this about adam & eve!?! I had to go back and skim it after I finished and it was all right there, I just didn't see it. All the rules and neighbors and odd things, even the names of the neighbors.

Definitely started out giving me some Don't Worry Darling vibes.  I enjoyed that it was so quick though, because honestly

if this was a long read that turned out to be biblical, I would've probably been highly annoyed lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Religious bigotry

kylieqrada's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

This was such a banger and I think going into it not knowing anything is the way to go. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gore, and Gaslighting

Minor: Misogyny, Blood, and Religious bigotry

cozy_soul_reads's review

emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

👀 Favorite Qoutes 👀

"When he thuds the whole world is listening. That is her understanding of men."

"Suffering is contraband."

"She doesn't know why she lies."

"I know that look. That look of the hunt."

"I was made for him."

"From him to her. A river to forever."


🍽 Mini Review 🍽
This book feels like the movies, Don't Worry Darling and the Stepford Wives with a leading character who's inner voice feels poetic, haunting, and cold. 
Sophia's mind and the story was hypnotic and intricate in this short story. This story was so haunting as all the men mentioned were treating women like objects and less like people. All the qoutes I provided actually made my skin crawl due to the tone of the whole story.
This story discusses safety, privelege, power, and reminded me a lot of controlling societies. 

There's a scene when someone asks women in a room "if they are happy," and one women digs her nails into a couch and says yes. And the manner that Sophia's understanding of love and the way her findings leave her world crumbling. 

The audiobook was only 2 hours and I felt like I was holding a friend's hand while running in the dark. I had no idea where the story was going and that felt freeing and terrifying. The descriptions of the house and the way Sophia is treated like a child yet expected to be the perfect wife was real for many women in history. Being expected to be perfect yet youthful forever, clean yet understanding their husband's every need. The other women were named after animals Mrs.Lion... I wondered more about the metaphors of it all. But this story will stay with me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Murder

oof that dark elements and that garden scene! Adam and Eve story ~ Sophia is really Eve and all the bones she found were the previous wives. Adam, her husband who was only called "husband," is so scary. The fact that the Adam's story was so self centered and the fact he labeled his past wives as "mine" as he hid parts of them around the house was haunting.

okokfinewhatever's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Religious bigotry and Murder

paneerakbari's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Exquisitely written and a tremendously imaginative blending of often obscure sources. Valente wields language like a samurai with their sword, or a chef with a knife, and to rather the same effect, emotionally. 

The book is novella-length, easily read through in a day if not a single (extended) sitting. It is dark, and tight, and uncomfortably close. The studied reader is liable to be piqued by the author's name-drops, and they work well as signposts pointing you on to the conclusion, itself another beginning. It's the sort of tale that, like all the best ones, matters more in the "getting there" than in the particulars of its plot: "how it's done" is so much tastier than "what it was" - though what it is includes penetrating insight, criticism so sharp you don't quite notice its bite, and a profound (though implicit) challenge to a particular ordering of some societies.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Gaslighting

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Domestic abuse, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Primary literary influences appear to be the Christian bible and apocrypha, Judo-Christian temple tradition, and Bluebeard folklore. This is not intended as a comprehensive list.

lucywh's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Religious bigotry

ka_ke's review

challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

Comfort Me with Apples is a bit of a mind fuck. 

It starts off eerie, I mean, what woman wakes up that perfectly in a perfect world. 

It makes you think, in some cases I wish I could wake up that way, and in others, I’m glad I live with the ability to think and observe my surroundings critically. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Classism

alexandryareads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Religious bigotry

islesbiyana's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Animal death and Religious bigotry

katies_chapters's review

dark medium-paced

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

1.0

This was such a waste of time WTF! This book wasn’t made for me. Like the movie ‚mother!‘ wasn’t made for me either. I don’t get the hype, the few people I follow gave this book… I didn’t feel anything while reading it. And when I got to THAT (plot twist or whatever) part I just got angry. I‘m glad I borrowed it and not had to pay a cent for it. 🤨

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Content Warnings

Minor: Religious bigotry