Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Der Gott der kleinen Dinge by Arundhati Roy

31 reviews

jocelynh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-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

2.0

This is one of those books that felt healthy but deeply unpleasant to read.

Starting with the minor complaints, the extremely frequent word concatenation for the kids' POVs drove me a little crazy. "Steelshrill," "chinskin," "trainrumble," "carbreeze," "greentrees," and "daymoon" are only some of the ones in chapter 2, and it keeps going from there.

There's also a bit of overreliance on simile and metaphor. It takes a long time for Roy to get to the main thrust of any scene, and I get the mild impression that Roy came up with a bunch of these turns of phrase and couldn't bear to edit any of them out, so they tend to clash overall. For example, we have:

The gray sky curdled and the clouds resolved themselves into little lumps, like substandard mattress stuffing.

Less than a paragraph later, there's:

Raindrops slid across the curved bottom of the rusted gutter on the edge of the roof, like shining beads on an abacus.

I wish they were at least thematically consistent; all the different imagery gave me whiplash. Some others are just bizarre:

The silence gathered its skirts and slid, like Spider Woman, up the slippery bathroom wall.

I will grant that she takes so much time with these, and with describing scenes in general, that the settings and events are extremely vivid. It felt almost like I was there, seeing, smelling, feeling, and hearing everything. Whether or not every detail (e.g. the formations of mosquitoes, or the personal histories of characters we never hear of again) is needed is perhaps more of a subjective call.

About 90% of the book is spent as exposition circling and leading up to the central event, and though we learn a lot about the characters and the cultural context, the writing (see above) makes it feel like a slog.

The God of Small Things is a somewhat long-winded and extremely emotionally ugly story, and that combination makes it a miserable read. Everyone suffers, no one is ever really happy except in a bitter, spiteful, gloating way.

It's a disgusting tale told in a poetic way. I think it's a very useful and culturally informative tale and I'm glad I read it as someone who isn't very familiar with Indian cultural biases, but I can't say I really enjoyed the journey.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

squiggle's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

conniebrown's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Police brutality, Grief, and Religious bigotry

hatoooz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

a tough read tbh but it’s worth it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

nikwui's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Incest

evllhag's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Police brutality

courtneyfalling's review against another edition

I tried so hard to get through this book. I really wanted to like it because I like Arundhati Roy's activism and I think of this book as rapidly becoming a new classic. But the out-of-order narration style coupled with the ever-shifting third-person POV was confusing, isolating, and frustrating. It got to the point where I've put off listening to this audio book at all, even while starting and finishing a lot of other books, and even thinking about continuing to listen to it fills me with dread. I ended up reading the Wiki summary and, to be honest, it's all information I either know already at only 56% through the book or entirely see coming... and so I don't even feel like I need to finish the last 44% of the book to have essentially absorbed the whole plot.

I also really hate the coming twin incest and just absolutely don't want that near me.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Colonisation

dwellordream's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

womanwill's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Ableism, Rape, and Vomit

sameenniazi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Minor: Incest