Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Collector by John Fowles

12 reviews

niamphoone's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

chronicreader96's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The Collector follows Frederick, a young man who collects butterflies and is completely obsessed by Miranda, a young woman he has seen around. When fortune strikes, Frederick comes up with a plan to capture Miranda so that she can grow to love him.

This was a very mixed read for me. I absolutely loved Frederick’s pages. Getting inside his head was so fascinating I didn’t want to stop reading! He is just the creepy protagonist that I wanted, but he also had a great deal of depth and intrigue. The portrayal of Frederick’s character was excellently done. Although I did find it difficult to get used to the complete lack of chapters in his sections initially. It reads like a running commentary and works well, I’ve just never read a book structured as this was before!

However, I really struggled with Miranda’s perspective. I found her to be a completely unlikeable character. The more I read, the greater my dislike grew for her. Although I do like how the real her contrasted to the image I’d gathered of her initially. Miranda’s sections often felt more like a lecture, they slowed the pace and I lost my focus. If I was able to connect to her, I may still have enjoyed it. But unfortunately her character lost all of my interest. Overall, I’m very glad I read this haunting classic, even if it’s not a favouite for me! 

I would recommend this book to fans of dark classic literature. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, and Violence

thesawyerbean's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-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

An interesting read. 
The highlight of this novel for me was the dual perspectives - we begin with Fred’s point of view: his planning, experiences and emotions throughout the process of obsession, abduction and ‘possession’ of Miranda. It was an exciting spin on the Lolita-esque unreliable and morally-reprehensible narrator: the perception of events we had just read obliterated by the diary entries of the victim Miranda herself. 
The stream of consciousness from Miranda, elucidating the thoughts and emotions behind her responses to her captivity interweaved with the context surrounding her life and romantic past, disintegrates the grotesquely endearing account by Fred in the previous part. It solidifies his evil firmly for the reader, emphasised further in the conclusion of the novel.

Despite this, it wasn’t all that enjoyable a read. Miranda’s diary entries were very convoluted, with constant switching between her memories and present day events, laced with political and class discourse. The discourse itself refers to the problematic aspects of gaining wealth, the apparent degradation of the ‘soul’ as a result, the class warfare between old and new money, the dilution of art, etc. etc.. Miranda is the classic rich artsy girl, Fred is the insidious ‘new money’. Fascinating, I suppose, but written in a way that wasn’t in fact fascinating. Especially when it was coming from the mouth of an absolutely heinous ‘love’ interest from her past.
The entire book was also riddled with weird grammar errors which interrupted the flow completely because I had to reread to confirm that I had no idea what was just said.

Overall this was an average read - it was not what I was expecting necessarily when I picked it up, but the architecture of the storytelling and the discourse I think warrant a read if you are so inclined.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Gaslighting

Minor: Rape

cakearson's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

workingfortheknife's review

dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

Loved the process of reading it but the story itself is quite rough and it’s going to stick for a long time after I finished it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Misogyny

Moderate: Rape, Violence, and Kidnapping

erinbarton's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

probably would have been 5 stars if section one and two were combined and the pov was alternating each chapter 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Stalking

helenahao's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual harassment

bentenuala's review

dark sad tense slow-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

0.25

I did not like reading this book, the writing was good, but the plot and characters weren’t, maybe they were at the time it was written, but not for the 21st century. World building was almost nonexistent too, overall, not something I’d recommend to read in either your free time, or for school. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder

neehara_'s review

dark mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, and Vomit

funkypenguin3000's review

challenging dark reflective tense 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

4.0

Edit: bumping her up to 4 stars bc i licherally can't stop thinking about it after a week and having read 2 other books in the meantime! we LOVE an unreliable narrator

OK i was so bored at the beginning (esp the beginning of part 2 like ugh get on with it babe) but got into a reading frenzy in the last 80 or so pages and the end freaked me out sooooo much, like, it was so absurd (but also not?? like i could see that happening) but so freaky and ahh

 

like when miranda's part started i found it a fucking drag. hearing her talk about her life outside the room. but about halfway through i really began to see myself in her, i think the author had a really good way of describing like. quarter life crisis and wanting to be a good person but being conflicted. also, the stockholm syndrome esque development was fun to explore. i especially liked how ferd thought she was truly warming up to him but she wanted to escape the whole time. but still felt bad for him? and i get that like honestly i kinda related to ferd at points as well

There were so many quotes in mirandas part that i thought were really touching? i cant find them now and of course i didnt write them down when i saw them lol. but i loved how her diary entries seemed so real. how they were at times sooo pretentious but i could see the woman behind them. or how she could see the irony. theres so much irony in this book you could talk for ages about it. like all of ferds offhand comments are honestly kind of funny. like when he was like "im normally not prone to do anything absurd" or something and like??? buddy. you literally just kidnapped someone!

My final note, is I should have known that there was no chance (for him or miranda) when he decided to put a bright orange carpet in the cellar. and he thought it looked lovely

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, and Violence

Minor: Death, Drug use, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, and Dysphoria