Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Collector by John Fowles

12 reviews

scarletkeiller's review against another edition

dark sad tense 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

4.0

This is a really great read. Fowles not only writes a twisted male lead with a warped sense of love and relationships, but a complex and interesting female character who was shockingly realistic as well. Her actions, emotions and thoughts felt really honest and believable and I was so taken aback that a man wrote this character in the 60s! I loved this book!

I loved the perspective shift halfway through, the hope it gave me that she find a way to escape, how it tricked me into feeling much the same as Miranda - blind hope that he might see the error of his ways and let her go. And then when the book reaches its natural end, despite knowing it was coming I was so full of sadness for her.

What an amazingly written story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

sophia_joy17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, and Kidnapping

itsanaxiom's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Kidnapping

Moderate: Sexual violence and Classism

bookishdreamer's review

dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual violence, Violence, and Vomit

izzystorm's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Sexual violence

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

amehlia's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I’ve had The Collector by John Fowles on my reading list for about six years now, and stumbled across a copy in a second-hand/antique emporium for £3. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to add to my collection of Vintage Classics, I bought it with the intention to pick it up whenever the mood struck me. This happened to be my second read of 2022, and Oh. My. God. I was not expecting it to be so gripping, so page-turning and harrowing, I am left shaken and deeply disturbed. 

The Collector is equal parts disturbing, emotional, and shocking in places. We are granted an insight into the mind of Frederick Clegg in the first half of the book, a man who becomes obsessed with a young woman from his area: Miranda Grey, an art student at the Slade. Infatuated with her, he buys a remote house in the countryside with the money won from football pools and constructs a secure cellar before kidnapping her near her home in Hampstead. This first half follows his experience taking care of her and trying to connect with her from his point of view, and in the second half we get an insight into Miranda’s experience through her nearly daily diary entries. 

Frederick, who uses the alias Ferdinand with Miranda, is incredibly detestable and overall a horrible man. She refers to him as Caliban, and hates him not only for kidnapping her and keeping her a prisoner but for being a certain type of person who is oblivious in some ways to many aspects of the world that are important to her. Their relationship is strange and complicated, at some points it seems as if they could even be on more neutral or even friendly terms under different circumstances. The Collector is an interesting look into the dynamic of the relationship between captor and captive, and explores pure selfishness and a persons will to survive.

Despite the unsettling content, I knew I had to rate this book 5⭐️ because it gripped me so strongly and had me enraptured throughout. Very glad I decided to finally read this, and I think it might become a re-read in the future. One of my top reads. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death and Sexual content

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, 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