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rewatchrereadrewind's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Infidelity, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Drug use
ivi_reads_books's review against another edition
- 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
Where the book lost me was about 3/4 of the way through when the plot and the main characters became unbelievable
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
victaphone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexual content, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury
lcdavenport's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Alcoholism and Alcohol
Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment
issyd23's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
NB Personally disagreed with 90% of the protagonists’ thoughts & actions + her critiques of feminism, consent & cancel culture in a post me too era - but worth reading.
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
beneduck's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
major TW for eating disorders, substance abuse, suicide, sexual assault
----
After immediately finishing here are my thoughts. The protag has horribly inconsistent psychology. Her actions and reactions make no sense compared to how she is in other parts of the story. This carries over to how Vladimir acts (thinking or a specific chair incident!) and it just pissed me off! The ending was too clean and resolved. So unbelievable.
Also!! the protag will not shut the fuck up about her body and eating habits, which i found really upsetting at times. she's obsessed with appearing younger, skinnier, "healthier". for tons of other reasons, i hate her and i don't enjoy hating her, which takes most of the fun out of this book.
i found the dustjacket summary soooo misleading -- as well as the super sexed-up cover. this is NOT
" Propulsive, darkly funny, and surreptitiously moving," it's horrific, glorifying, and disheartening. the protag makes light of her students' worries about potential sexual assault and deals with the whole husband thing in a spineless manner and never seems to form her own concrete opinions -- really about anything. even her "obsession" with vladimir in the first half consists of daydreaming about sex with him -- hardly an obsession, more aptly named a crush. i was excited for a dark and sexy book, and i got one that was uncomfortable in a way that wasn't productive.
re: the chair scene: "I let her lead me to the scene, not sure if this event would actually happen. I love characters who do something questionable on an impulse and then must deal with the consequences." it sure as hell was impulsive -- but it felt like she was acting on some other character's impulse and not her own. our darling protag has yet to feel capable of something like she does, and when she does it, it feels horrific instead of exciting.
re: the author's treatment of sexual misconduct: "I still feel connected to a sense of sexuality as a form of freedom and as something that can be used against you. Protectiveness about sexuality, making sexuality feel traumatic or disturbing, can be used as a way to wield power over female sexuality. And that was something that was much more prevalent about the sexual politics of when I was in college and growing into adulthood. It was really about taking down all of those taboos." i! do! not! like! these! implications! it's not fair for me to disagree with an author's stance as a reason for not liking a book, but the treatment of sexual boundaries in this book is sickening. simply put, what was attempted as a reclamation of aged female sexuality is actually just attempted assault. to be the reader seeing this through a first person narrator was so unpleasant, and, yet again, not in a productive manner.
booooo!! this went from a fun hate read to a capital-H hate read. this prof works (or used to work? unsure) at my college. i hope i see her so i can try to make amends.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Alcohol
Moderate: Suicide attempt
ekg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Eating disorder and Sexual assault
Minor: Alcoholism and Fire/Fire injury
edgaranjapoe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury
gabriellewrren's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment
joscelynhe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol