Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

3 reviews

lelodo13's review

challenging emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book reminds me of an epic poem. Every line is carefully crafted to convey such raw pain, beauty, horrors, and love. 
This book was recommended to me so I didn't fully know what I was getting into. The story has supernatural elements that act as a coping mechanism for the main character. 
I would highly recommend this book. 

*listened to audiobook narrated by the author through Everand

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

kell_xavi's review

challenging emotional medium-paced

4.5

Perhaps the most heartfelt writer I have read. Jesmyn Ward writes Annie and her mother, her companions, with strength and depth; she writes their daily struggles as the subjects of unending cruelty in sharp detail, from a character full of determination and despair, until both she and her reality are stark and fully imagined before us, until we are immersed in that dark place—and in the bloom of scents, the pain of cut palms, the seeping presence of spirits to watch and intercede. It is a hard story, because the history, the knowledge that these acts of enslavement, brutality, rape, starvation, torture and confinement were common and that thousands of people lived through them and bear their legacy. Ward reminds us, much like the spirit who records the names of those who cross the sea remembers, so the lives, the harms, and the fires can be felt in the land and the people we are among today. So that we can imagine what bodies were forced to bear, and the poetry and love that those extremely resilient people still found and shared, the will to live that carried skills and knowledge from person to person, and across generations unto freedom.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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? No

3.75

this story was so poetically written, it was beautiful to read.
it wasn’t too long, the perfect time to tell the story as needed without dragging on.
annis’ story is just so tragic and you think it can’t get worse but it continues to do so.
although difficult this was a really important read; exploring a young woman’s perseverance through loss, grief and insurmountable odds, with magical realism interwoven through the pages to provide hope and guidance.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death, Infertility, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Pregnancy