Reviews tagging 'Racism'

We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver

21 reviews

jackbifrost's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, and Physical abuse

michelles_book_nook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

⚠️ CW: school shooting, murder, fatphobia, racism, homophobia, ableism, mental illness, child abuse and mentions of paedophilia ⚠️ This book is so hard hitting and had me hooked from the very beginning! Eva never really wanted to be a mother, certainly not the mother of a boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who had tried to befriend him. Now, two years after her son's horrific rampage, Eva comes to terms with her role as Kevin's mother in a series of startlingly direct letters with her absent husband about their son's upbringing. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about motherhood. This book is so incredibly chilling, heartbreaking and truly makes you consider the nature vs nurture debate. I regularly had to put it down and really think about the psychological side of this story, it was definitely a lot to consider but the characters and plot lived rent free in my head even when I wasn't reading and I think it will stay with me for a long time. I'd previously watched the movie of this but the book is on a whole different level that I can't even explain properly, it's one of those that you just have to read to understand the emotional rollercoaster. Overall, I absolutely adored this book from the way it was written to the hugely thought provoking plot, and I highly recommend reading it but please take the CW's into account because this is a very difficult read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Racism

Minor: Pedophilia

aniloracccc's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Fatphobia, and Death of parent

quinn24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

Lionel Shriver can write so well I just wish her bigoted beliefs weren’t consistently clawing their way onto the page completely unnecessarily.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Genocide, Vomit, and Classism

gunkguy's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Homophobia

aliengirlreads's review against another edition

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Pregnancy

megelizabeth's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this, having had it sitting on my shelves for ages and having heard so much about it over the years. It's a slow, dense read, and not at all an enjoyable one, but definitely a fascinating one overall. The ending also really surprised me, and it's definitely well-written and cleverly thought-out as a whole. The main thing that stopped me giving this a higher rating is that, while the protagonist is clearly deliberately unlikeable, there were times where it wasn't clear whether particular awful things were purely Eva or instead were reflective of the author's views. I also really struggled to see any real love or connection between Eva and her husband, which made that element of the story (and it's quite a big one) super hard to care about or link with everything else.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Genocide

the_bookish_owl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

Written in the form of letters from Eva to her husband Franklin, it was an odd writing style and tone of voice that took a while to get into but overall a compelling story.

It constantly annoyed me how clueless the husband was throughout Kevin's life. Intriguing twist near the end that I'll be honest I didn't see coming.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mass/school shootings, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Racism

madelinequinne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

5.0

Well this certainly cemented the fact that I don’t ever want kids. Kevin continuously made me so angry throughout this novel, and the absolute heartbreak i felt at the end when we find out he murdered his little sister too, that just absolutely broke me. This is such a difficult book at times because of how awful the topic is, but overall I would just describe this book as sad. It’s incredibly well written, and this is the most emotion i’ve ever felt after reading a book to date, so brb, gonna go cry 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

townmarshboy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Body shaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol