Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Das Geisterhaus by Isabel Allende

100 reviews

alyssaakdefusco's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

A whole journey! I absolutely love generational historical fiction like this. And I'll start backwards by saying the last several chapters absolutely FLOORED me. I was crying by the last page. The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is that this book is loooong and it had me feeling confused by some of the character choices up until the very end! It took me a while to read. Parts of it were sluggish and a lot of really crappy stuff happens. Plus for most of the book you're bounced back and forth by a 3rd person narrator and then a 1st person narration by the main male character of the book who is a racist r*pist, so that really threw me off. But seriously, it is worth a read just to get to the end. I've never experienced that much of a turnaround with a book and so much justification for such a long and hard to read first 3/4 of a book! Phew. It's helpful to do some research about the historical context of Chile in the 1st half of the 20th century too because Allende is ultimately telling that story through the lens of this family. I didn't realize that until about half way through! My bad. Anyways, here's my favorite passage from the book that sums up what I loved so much about it and what was revealed to me at the very end:

"She was one of those stoical, practical women of our country, the kind of woman who has a child with every man who passes through her life and, on top of that, takes in other people's abandoned children, her own poor relatives, and anybody who needs a mother, sister, or an aunt; the kind of woman who's the pillar of many other lives, who raises children to grow up and leave her and lets men leave her too, without a word of reproach, because she has more pressing things to worry about. She looked like so many others I had met...I told her she had an enormous risk in rescuing me, and she smiled. It was then I understood that the days of the fascists were numbered, because they have not been able to destroy the spirit of these women."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Incest, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Abortion, and Murder

acacia_happy_hour's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Abortion, War, and Classism

Minor: Addiction

misty_kb's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, and Abortion

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Grief

ajmickel's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Rape, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Drug abuse

magicole's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

thursdd4y's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kimveach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

3.75

I realized I had never read this book in Allende's trilogy.  I don't remember details from the first two books, but this was good on its own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

laurenw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional

3.75

My best friend rated this as 'too much realism, not enough magic' and that is v apt. 
A multi-generational story about an intriguing family who appears to have drawn in every kind of trauma possible, the book is not bad, but it is chaotic. For all the claims of this focusing on a matriarchal line, and we do follow 4/5 generations of daughters, all the events in the book are framed through the perspective of 1 man, who is not a pleasant character. Obviously books can be enjoyable and still center a problematic character, but the role of Esteban (plural) throughout the story detracts from the spirit of the women this story should have been about. 
Ultimately, fell flat for me, but the political background and its rich cultural depictions were its shining grace. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Miscarriage, and Lesbophobia

kimchikat's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, War, and Classism

bigolscrewup's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The point was not to die, since death came anyways, but to survive, which would be a miracle

And that fox escaped with his tail between his legs, with all the hens chasing him

4/5⭐

This is my second Isabel Allende book, after "Violeta" and I've always wanted to read this book before reading any of her other books, but I'm glad to have found some time to read this book finally. I love reading stories that details a family's history through multiple generations, highlighting each family member's eccentricities in a country that's on a path towards a military coup.

I didn't enjoy the the frequent shifts in perspective throughout the book and sometimes within a chapter, which made it difficult for me to follow the story at times. Even though Clara's idea of arranging the story based on events instead of chronological order sounded good as an idea, it was frustrating at times to read some chapters without having any clear idea on when a particular event happened, especially in this story, where there are so many interesting characters, who are all related to each other. Also, I felt the story lost some of its charm once Clara was out of the picture.

The magical realism in the book added a layer of wonder, which blended with Allende's elegant prose drew me and made reading this book an absolute joy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, and Abortion