Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

18 reviews

ashmash's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

The pacing slightly ruined this memoir. The first half is introspective and you learn a lot about Deborah Feldman and her life in the Hasidic community. From her marriage onwards the pace of the book changes dramatically and it feels like she was writing this with the fear of surpassing a page limit she had been set. If you’re wondering how she managed to escape this fundamentalist group, you won’t find it here. She skims over that completely. Multiple plot points get forgotten and you’re left with more questions than answers. The start of the book establishes that she reunites with her mother after leaving her life as a Hasidic housewife behind. She mentions how this happens even though this was teased at the beginning and would’ve been a pretty major part of her experience adjusting to the outside world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content

Minor: Domestic abuse

stindex's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

dearreader's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, and Car accident

samanthas_book_nook's review

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I feel like this book would have been so much better if we got to hear more of the story after she left. For instance, what did her family do? Did they shun her? What did her mother think after she left? Was she proud?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

mmefish's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

It could be a 5 but I wanted to know more about how she actually left, how she was fighting for her son, how her family members reacted. Plus I did not appreciate the few misogynistic remarks the author decided to include for whatever reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia

issyd23's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Very different from the Netflix show: more dark, cultish & sad. I thought it would be like Fiddler on the Roof but it was more Handmaids Tale 😢 These Hasids make the Amish look progressive 4📖

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and War

bahamyulala's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Sexual content

lbird's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

This very personal account of growing up as a woman in an Ultra-Orthodox community and feeling restrained by its strict rules of is a moving memoir. It explores her experience of Judaism being used as an instrument of control and shame throughout her childhood and early 20s. While I would have liked for some of her other family to members have been more developed and for her written description of her father’s disabilities to develop as she became older in the memoir, her voice is clear. It is a story of female liberation and gaining the confidence to stand up for yourself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Sexual content

Minor: Genocide, Pedophilia, and Murder

christineazopf's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

I am giving this memoir a perfect 5 stars. Feldman's writing is raw, emotional, and somehow stills manages to be objective. The edition I listened to had the new Afterward, which gives even more insight into the time in her life when she chose to leave the community and write this memoir. 

I watched the Netflix series loosely based on this memoir a few years ago, and I am glad I felt compelled to listen to this book. The narration was incredible, the story was moving, and I feel both more informed about a life so vastly different from my own, as well as more compassionate for the people within these communities who may feel they don't belong, but who think they are trapped with no way out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

aargot1's review against another edition

challenging reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Sexism, Sexual content, and Medical content