Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

24 reviews

tahsintries's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Police brutality, Sexual content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Hate crime, Incest, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Confinement, Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, Rape, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Xenophobia, Classism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Infidelity

kibiiiariii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, Rape, Death, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Classism, Cursing, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, and Pregnancy

emily_britton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

 Terrible and amazing. It's hard to put into words just what Roy has accomplished with this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Child abuse

Moderate: Abandonment and Violence

warboyziri's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

This was a really hard read but I'm glad I read it. Hard because of Arundhati Roy's specific way of establishing incredible catastrophe in the first few chapters, and then filling out the story in reverse, in parallel, throughout the book. I'm amazing at the story structure, and impressed by how she managed to flesh out all the characters so well, explaining every good and bad trait in them and their motives. Ridiculously descriptive writing that feels meditative. Peaceful. Until it's describing a horror, when it feels suffocating and real. Insane book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Classism, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Abandonment

jellyparfum's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual assault, Death, Hate crime, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Gore, Incest, Abandonment, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

chilu_esquivel08's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-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? Yes

5.0

"Su madre la quería un poco menos."

"No era joven ni vieja, pero tenía una edad en que la muerte ya era un hecho posible."

"Pero, ¿qué puede decirse? Sólo que hubo lágrimas."

Fue una mala y buena idea leer este libro en conjunto con El cielo de piedra de N.K. Jemisin. Si Jemisin se metió en mi mente, Arundhati Roy se metió en mi corazón.

Desde antes ya tenía presente que esta novela toca temas sensibles y un tanto fuertes, pero lo que no me esperaba (y hubiera deseado que alguien me lo dijera), es que tuviera una gran cantidad de abuso emocional y verbal en sus páginas; no lo veo como un defecto, sin embargo son temas que me afectan un poco más personalmente y que me recuerdan a algunas cosillas no tan bonitas.

Fuera de eso. Wow.

Debo ser honesta, la pasé mal leyendo esto, pero al mismo tiempo no pude parar de leer; esta historia me absorbió completamente y me marcó bastante. He leído varias reseñas que dicen que la forma en la que está escrita esta novela es bastante confusa y hasta mal hecha, yo la verdad estoy en desacuerdo, personalmente en ningún momento me molestó, la forma metafórica, descriptiva y poética para este tipo de historia es tan... correcta (?).

Como dice el título, esta novela trata sobre las Pequeñas Cosas y cómo estas afectan en las Grandes Cosas; se entrelazan mucho a lo largo de toda la historia, van de aquí a allá y desencadenan en algo a medida que avanza la historia; y lo mismo pasa al revés, las Grandes Cosas afectan a las Pequeñas Cosas y pueden terminar en tragedia.

Ha sido la primera novela que he leído que se desarrolla en India, es interesante ver cómo la colonización y el sistema de castas perduran hasta el día de hoy, creo que es bastante similar a lo que aún ocurre aquí en México, se presenta de una manera muy muy sutil cómo se les da preferencia a ciertas razas y ciertas costumbres mientras se discriminan a otras.

¿Es un buen libro? Sí. ¿Ha sido uno de los mejores que he leído en mi vida? No lo sé, tengo tantos sentimientos entrelazados dentro de mí y necesito procesarlos. ¿Se los recomiendo? Claro que sí, aunque al igual que con La quinta estación, no es un libro para pasar un buen rato, pero de una manera u otra los marcará y les hará ver la historia de India.

Ahora si me permiten, iré a descansar mi corazón, que lo necesito bastante.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Abandonment, Child death, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Racism

ruthmoog's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

3.0

The book tells how the actions of a manipulative bad-actor ripple through the lives of others. I found the time perspective a little confusing, but I liked the motifs throughout the book (Popeye, love in Tokyo...) sometimes adding humour, other times more sinister.
I didn't enjoy it much, but before this book I had no idea about banana jam!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Child death, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Classism, Vomit, and Blood

Moderate: Abandonment

sir_ren's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.5

firstly as someone from the state and familiar with the culture- I have to laud the author for her observations and addition of details that feel incredibly authentic (for lack of a better term) and made the novel feel so probable and real. the meticulously written particulars all seem to stem from an intimate knowledge of the place and its people. I do not mean Kerala and Keralites but of Ayemenam and those characters.    

the novel has a rather simple story- the main plot. even though I could predict the general plot of the story (as the novel is written switching from the past and the present) it was still engaging and interesting thanks to the writing and the details. the construction of the novel-  the unfolding of events and use of language make it satisfying and rewarding to see it all come together. 

the "Kid Speak" used in the novel tends to be polarizing as far as I can tell. some people put the book down to never complete it due to the language. not that I am in a place to be telling anyone what to do with their time, but I would still seriously encourage readers to stick it out even if they are mildly irritated by the peculiarities. my experience is that I found it puzzling at first and then interesting, but the novelty wore off soon and it started to feel badly used. but this changed as I kept reading, the way Arundhati Roy built her novel and used language- the payoff was Real for me. the "quirkiness" of the language turned into a blessing as the novel went on. Intimacy is what I experienced again. in a novel all about this family- to speak their secret language and to have a few odd words and phrases evoke all the emotions and thoughts that they did was a moment of intimacy with the novel and its characters. 

another point of contention tends to be the "villain", who some find to be a cartoonishly evil/bad person. in my opinion, the character was believable. 

now for the parts I did not enjoy. the book describes or mentions a lot of the uglier sides of human nature/bodies/actions. I felt the number of instances was a little excessive. maybe one or two could have been cut and the book could still retain its integrity. 
and I felt the Kid Speak could have been cut in a few places. but I am glad the language was what it was

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Incest, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, and Excrement

Minor: Alcoholism

mxpringle's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Racism, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Child death, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

aga89's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Incest, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Abandonment, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Xenophobia