Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn

22 reviews

ainhoalikesbooksandmangos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Wow, from the very beginning I knew this book will we good but I I'm still surprised by how good it was. I loved it, I was hooked. I need more time to collect my thoughts but I loved it. But ve careful, in especially squeamish and I could read this book, but read the warning beforehand please.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

acg2285's review

dark

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

luckystarlane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

ohmyalli's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Very dark novel. I did like the use of different narrators in the audio format. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, and Suicide

indigo149's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Medical trauma

chloseencounter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

Any Man was a stunning and unique experience. I’d 100% recommend the audio book because it’s extremely immersive. 

I really enjoyed hearing all the different POVs of the antagonist’s victims, this was a very raw look into all the various outcomes that can come from surviving sexual assault, weather it’s dealing by humor, family, control, emptiness, self destructive behavior, or even suicide. While the characters were interesting and their storylines were heartbreaking, the most special thing to me about this novel is the look at what women so often deal with when faced with sexual violence but through the eyes of a man. Unfortunately female victims of sexual assault are all too common, we hear about it so much in fact, our society has become desensitized to the sexual abuse women face and how it’s handled by the public. Flipping the narrative and using men as the victims not only opens up an important conversation about men who have experienced sexual violence and how they are treated but also made the subject feel much more shocking. Then I suppose we can ask ourselves…why is that? Why is being sexually assaulted as a women so commonplace that it doesn’t feel nearly as gut wrenching to read?

The most eye opening part in my opinion was the very last bit, when our serial rapist responds to the journalist, in which she replies with a lot of grotesque language about how a women might think about men as essentially prey or even nonhuman. Then she sends the same exact paragraph replacing the pronouns with she/her, it was sort of appalling to see how different those paragraphs felt right next to one another. Why one was shocking and the other…felt sort of normal. As a women it was easy for me to read the paragraph and think “yea that’s just how men often think of us”, and yet the same exact paragraph but with men as the group being preyed upon felt much more abhorrent. 

At the end of the day, I think that ultimately there wasn’t one predator but multiple women predators. The story seemed to lump these people into one frightening amalgamation of a women because how could society believe that there may be multiple women out there preying upon men, it must be a repeat offender. However, when a women is attacked it could literally be “any man”, which is a very smart way to make a statement about how both male and female victims of sexual violence are seen unfairly by the general public.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

hapikohw's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad fast-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

4.0

It started on such a high for me. I really thought it would be a 5-star easy. As we went from the survivor-hood of each of Maude's victims to the general spectacle of the case it dipped for me. It is at its best when the internalization of each man is explored and how they maneuver through relationships of those closest to them. When they are centered. Some of the survivors are given this, and others are not - the last two men. It was bold to use real celebrities and what they would say in an event like this. The sixth man, who was technically the first, and then Maude herself were extremely rushed and that lack of exploration in those chapters really dropped it for me to 4 stars. Maude's logic that she gave the press versus what she actually believes in and why she actually done it is fine, but there should have been more if she was to actually have a moment in the book instead of being the person who got away and exists as a phantom in the public consciousness and the minds of her victims. Still, the experimental approach to the physical and audio book was enough to still be great to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

corpseparty's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

literaryliaisons's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

tamimin's review against another edition

dark fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence