Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

9 reviews

toonkatie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Xenophobia

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

Wuthering Heights is a stunning, claustrophobic nightmare of a gothic novel that I appreciate more in my 30s than I did in my teens. I went into this with little memory of the plot - the entirety of my recollection of my senior-year English essay on the subject was “everyone’s awful.” But two of my childhood besties were game for an impromptu buddy (re)read, and there is nothing quite like revisiting a book you didn’t understand on your first read and realizing it’s actually more horrifying than you previously understood (as a parent, the generational cycle of abuse and the childhood trauma wrought by severe isolation, confinement and emotional manipulation color the story for me, now). 

Also on this read, I was more interested in the structure and style. The use of two unreliable narrators is so brilliantly done, where Mr. Lockwood’s diary-style narrative depends entirely on an abbreviated version of Nelly Dean’s narrative, which depends entirely on her retelling of events that happened to other people nearly three decades ago. The layers of bias between us and the events of the story create a feeling of always viewing the action through a fun-house mirror, with the melodrama rendered farcical and the broodiness of the characters and the moors deepening into supernatural terror. 

Ultimately, who but an isolated and introverted young woman confined to the English moors, writing under an alias, defying the strictures of her zealous Christian family members could have written a story even her own sister would later caution is maybe too dark? (Charlotte’s posthumous introduction to the novel is overly apologetic and explanatory to a degree that I really dislike, but her note that her sister’s writing was “moorish, and wild, and knotty as a root of heath” is perfectly said). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy

riverofhorton's review against another edition

This book is incredibly violent, with every kind of toxic relationship and abuse you can think of, with the kind of casual racism and misogyny that I have at this point come to expect from 19th Century fiction. That said, I may well return to this book at a later date, since there were a few scenes that I found to be quite thrilling, and I do find myself invested in the characters and their development. Right now just isn't the right time for me to be reading a book with this amount of violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

evgeorge's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

2.0

If you have been abused, have experience with violent, neglectful alcoholic or controlling behavior consider reading something else. This a horror story of obsession, violence, the legacy of family trauma, alcoholism and abuse. Heathcliff is a nightmare model of coercive control. What he and Catherine have is not love it is passion, obsession and mutual distruction. They and everyone around them suffer. This story has influenced women for generations to believe that this is what love looks like.  A romance. A love story. No. It is beautifully written horror story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

leeka's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Toxic relationship, and Violence

the_pysselfia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

yikes my dude it did not need to be that racist

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jessiesworldofbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.25

I enjoyed this book even though all the characters were awful and the story was quite depressing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol

jennalynn48's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Domestic abuse

courtneyfalling's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was my favorite book for a while in high school, and years later, it's still my favorite classic. It's so melodramatic (I've been jokingly calling it an original soap opera), with a lot of great quotes and open-ended angst. I also feel like it brings up issues of race, gender, childhood, literacy, and property ownership with surprising insight for its time period (though those moments can be jarring on their own). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Blood