Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

30 reviews

annamgoodman's review against another edition

reflective relaxing slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Mental illness, and Death of parent

miller8d's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

This book is brilliant in a way that makes me say “This is the story of a real life,” not “omg I love this book.” Like, I don’t really feel like I read a fictional story. (I actually have no clue if it’s autobiographical or not but I won’t google it because I don’t want to spoil it). Perhaps for that reason, this book took me an incredible long time to read. Like, months on end of picking it up and loving it, but being unable to pick it up again because it was so difficult to read. I don’t even think it was actually difficult literature for me, but instead so emotionally dense and detail-heavy that I couldn’t pay anything but 100% attention while reading, otherwise I’d have to go back dozens of pages to figure out why I was confused. Also,

this is perhaps the only book or story I’ve ever known which accurately depicts how tumultuous and confusing and painful it can be to survive childhood and grow up. I absolutely loved her depiction of how the child’s mind can equally spin fantasy and horrific terror on the same coin— not simple boogieman stuff, but much scarier, finding awful and disturbing fears in/around the mundane figures of your social world and daily life, even when there’s nothing truly wrong there.

Beautiful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

risemini's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

anahisa's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.75

women!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what else is there to say, really??? fantastic character studies being done here and the nuances to lila and lenu’s relationships are exquisite!!! What they have is so bitter and yet so lovely. Can’t wait to see how they develop throughout the rest of the series <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual assault

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, and Violence

issyd23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

BRB reading everything Elena Ferrante has ever written 5⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

becksusername's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense 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

4.5

I can't wait to get my hands on book two!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Stalking, Sexual harassment, and Classism

radfordmanor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

katrinarose's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

This was a really interesting book, the friendship between Lenu and Lila is so complicated. I wanted them to stick together more and it was sad to watch them go on separate paths for reasons out of their control. They are both such interesting characters. The chapters were short and easy to read but I also felt like the book was a bit slow; there was almost no plot so that is a major thing to consider before deciding to read this. I thought about removing another half star for the times where it felt like it dragged, but I think that was almost the purpose. This is a story of their lives, not a typical conflict-driven plot with a climax and conclusion, so it felt wrong to rate it like it was. I think I will continue with the second book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Death of parent

paulawind's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

4.5

I don’t get how some people might speculate that the author under Ferrante’s pen name is a man because no man could write woman like this, even more the friendship dynamics of Lila and Elena. This is a piece of brilliant writing which shows the beautiful, ugly truth of people closest to us who we love to hate, who are pieces of our souls, ones who define who we are as people. 

I can’t wait to read the rest of the series and what trajectory those binary stars will take - closer or away from each other, how will their friendship progress and how will they develop as people. This novel is a perfect example of writing about the most mundane life in such a captivating way that you feel as if you were reading about lives of famous individuals 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, and Classism

lindseyhall44's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

My Brilliant Friend is a highly regarded international treasure, focusing on a female friendship in 1950’s+ Naples. While I cannot relate to Elena (our narrator) in a environmental or physical sense, her connection with Lila embodies so much of my own relationships from adolescents to now. It’s resonance with readers spanning multiple years highlights Ferrante’s brilliant (haha see what I did there) ability to articulate the human experience, many events of which I am still trying to put together with words.
I cannot wait to continue on with the rest of the Neapolitan series, and Ferrante’s backlist in general.
After checking trigger warnings, I would highly highly recommend if you enjoy character based novels!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Murder, and Gaslighting