Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

56 reviews

sarabook's review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Terminal illness

sakisreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

I was so pleasantly surprised that this was by Balli Kaur Jaswal, because I recently read ‘Now You See Us’ and loved it ✨

This story was SUBLIME. Lighthearted moments with touching parts in between, this is definitely worth a read ❤️ 

I’ll discuss some of my favourite parts but there’ll be some spoilers so I’ve put them in my spoiler tags ✨

I was so delighted that Nikki had her happy endings; getting justice for Maya (or starting to), finding love with Jason, making friends with Kulwinder etc. I was so invested in her and her widow friends, I kept rooting for them 🥳

Another one! The murder by Jaggi and the assault by him and Tarampal was very upsetting, but I was so happy when it brought the widows back in again 🥰 Arvinder and Sheena were two particular favourites; badassery and femininity are not mutually exclusive 🤷🏻‍♀️

Asian mums express their love in the same ways and so this excerpt got me 🥹 

‘Grace's gesture stirred something in Nikki. She couldit believe how much she missed Mum all of a sudden - Mum who had pushed money into her hand the same insistent way the first time she returned home for dinner after moving out.’

It’s 4.5 out of 5 stars for me ✨ Big fan! Thank you 😊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Grief, and Death of parent

manisitdas's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

A beautiful story about South Asian diaspora societies in a foreign and often unkind land, where shame and honor often triumph over choice and plague women's lives. But this is also a story of women finding themselves, discovering a community, being able to openly discuss their desires, and, in the process, learning to fight for their rights and support one another. So wonderfully portrayed, while at the same time quite fair and balanced about the diaspora experiences! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Violence

haley49's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-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

This book! Was! So! Good! 
I read it in a day. I loved all the sweet ensemble characters, the growth of the leads, the pacing, the themes. There were so many valuable themes throughout the story but none felt rushed or overly forced. They felt like a natural exploration of the Punjabi community’s experience in the UK and beyond. I loved how casually muslim they were and how the different characters were different ranges of religious. It felt so realistic. Everyone’s emotions seemed so realistic and the relationships between the women were gold. Obviously bits and pieces were exaggerated but all the women felt authentic to the spirit of “auntie”  culture. 

I really appreciated the discussion on middle aged and older women and their importance to communities. Their emotions, sexuality, education, desires, and even gossip were all valid parts of them; and thus essential elements of their community. It was a sweet lesson that a person’s value does not decrease with age nor does it depend upon status, money, gender, education, birth place, children, romantic relationships (present or not), etc. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

tuesday_evening's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

buecher_und_huehner's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Lesbophobia

Two further trigger warnings that are not in the drop down menu but maybe should be:

femicide, honour killings

lkjones19's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Islamophobia, Car accident, and Lesbophobia

eemadeeberry's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Islamophobia

alishamegan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Well there's a lot of stuff stuff I could say. Idk why this is tagged as lighthearted as it is not! 

Definitely makes me upset and angry, though I hope that things are not as dire for the women in the community as this book depicts, but that just be me trying to uncharacteristically optimistic about the lives and status of these women. I mean, there is a Southall Black Sisters for a reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

CW for honour killings in addition to mentioned triggers

kathrun006's review against another edition

challenging funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

The book is not an anthology. It is about women taking a creative writing class. Most of the stories they write in the class are erotic, but the plot of the book is not centered around sex.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Rape, and Sexual assault

This book deals with the theme of arranged vs. forced marriage so it contains mentions of forced marriage and child marriage. The characters who were married as children are adults and widows when the story takes place, but it is relevant to the story. The only content warnings which are described in a scene are fire and fire injury and interpersonal violence. The violence described is a man attacking a woman. I have included misogyny as an explicit content warning because it is a major theme of the book, but the book is mainly about women supporting eachother and finding their voices in a misogynistic world so do not think that the book itself is misogynistic.