Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Play It as It Lays

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

13 reviews

wendyeldred's review against another edition

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dark emotional

4.0

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mmefish's review against another edition

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dark reflective fast-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

She wanted to tell him she was sorry, but saying she was sorry did not seem entirely adequate, and in any case what she was sorry about seemed at once too deep and too evanescent for any words she knew, seemed so vastly more complicated than the immediate fact that it was perhaps better left unraveled.

An addicting story (thanks to the prose) about shallow people and their shallow lives. And mental illness. Reminded me a bit of "The Bell Jar".

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hannahnasir's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

The highlight of this book was Didion’s depiction of escapism. How one reaches a certain point of “what’s the fucking point?”, the panic turns into numbness, the chaos and anarchy into mere white noise. Didion expresses an extreme example of one who is disconnected, alienated in the most implicit means possible, the reader (or at least, me) is suspended in a binding pool of fear, fuelled by absolutely nothing. The feelings I felt whilst reading this book is so difficult to explain. But for the lack of a better analogy it felt like one big, painfully slow, painfully quiet panic attack. When everything feels so wrong it almost feels right - only it isn’t, this contradiction thus creating a void, in which the reader is pulled into a blackhole of nothing. I sound like I’m talking in circles, but perhaps that’s exactly what it is - a cycle. You feel so much it breaks you to the point of not being able to feel. Only for that to allow others to hurt you even further, breaking you again, so on so forth. TLDR; this book drove me insane. Do not read this if you’re not ready to face horrible Post-Read-Depression.

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motelsix's review against another edition

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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

3.5

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rin_dawg's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-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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sara_beyer's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad fast-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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margztgz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I expected to enjoy this novel more than I did but it was an interesting read nonetheless and I finished it very quickly. I felt a lot of empathy towards the main character as a woman essentially lost in so much of her life. Certain scenes were difficult to read but so well written and encapsulating. I thought the language was good at keeping attention yet left me in a bleak mood.

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