Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

8 reviews

melreadsandrecs's review against another edition

1.0

I'm sorry, but this was subjectively, to me, a really bad book. I found out not only poorly written but problematic. This review will be fairly brief but will contain spoilers. 

Firstly, the characterization was very weak. Every character sounded and acted the exact same. The POV would change and I wouldn't even notice, since threw characters were just copied and pasted. 

More importantly, the plot was extremely weak. Alejandra faces challenges, kind of. But every obstacle is unrealistically easy to solve. She finds her birth parents with ease, despite having been in a closed adoption. She finds and can afford a therapist within a matter of minutes, and of course the therapist has no wait list or screening needs. Of course her husband magically agrees to a very easy divorce despite everything we've been told about him being competitive and callous. Of course her therapist knows a soil analyst (which didn't even really make sense) Of course she gets released from the hospital after a suicide attempt with no issue, even though in real life a hospitalization like that costs thousands and usually ruins your life. 

Which brings me to what I thought was problematic about the book: it absolutely failed at depicting the tenacity required to actually overcome post partum depression and the difficulties of motherhood. If everybody could just get into therapy within an hour, we wouldn't be losing mothers and children to suicide and infanticide the way we are. If therapists could do random house calls at the drop of a hat, we might not have police killings of people in mental health crises. And it is irresponsible to write a plot a suicide attempt be the solution to any problem. 

Yeah the more I write, the less sorry I am for the low rating. Truly what the hell did I just read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

directorpurry's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

chavonnwshen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual violence and Colonisation

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Genocide, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, and Infertility

sophi_b's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

niliii's review against another edition

dark hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual violence

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Generational trauma, healing, La Llorna, queer rep. This book is AMAZING and feels made for me. I was apprehensive at first since motherhood was a main theme but I am sooo glad I stuck with it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

schomj's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual violence