Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Vladimir

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

13 reviews

ivi_reads_books's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

Even though I found the main female character unlikeable I was intruiged by her. Presenting as a woman with liberal values while secretly being quite conservative. It was an interesting insight into the mind of a woman who doesn't truely support other women.
Where the book lost me was about 3/4 of the way through when the plot and the main characters became unbelievable

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issyd23's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

Immensely captivating with a disappointing & rushed ending. Gives ‘I Love Dick’ by Chris Kraus energy 3❤️‍🔥

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.

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karol99's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

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adamsbookshelf's review against another edition

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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

1.0

Wow this book just hit all the wrong boxes for me. It was so boring and felt condescending.

The first 2/3 of the novel had almost nothing to do with Vladimir and about the MC dealing with her husbands SA accusations. Our MC is kind of an awful human and keeps insisting that she doesn't stand by his actions but proceeds to stand by his actions?? And don't even get me started on when she drugs Vladimir ties him up, gaslights him into believing he wanted to do BDSM and lying about his wife having an affair. He then decides he wants to sleep with our MC for god knows why and plot twist, she no longer wants to sleep with him. Well until she changes her mind and they have the worst described sex I've ever read in a novel. Then the cabin burns down and she stays with her husband and moves to a new place to recover from her burns. In the last chapter she meets with one of the SA victims and it's the quickest character interaction in the novel and almost feels forced.

Overall I did not enjoy the story or the characters and only gave it one star because the cover is hot.

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olpapi's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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? It's complicated

3.0

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karenmariscalo's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

It presents the female character in an uncommon position

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cosycourtney's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-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

4.75

Ummm my natural reaction at the end of this was “what the fuck was that?”. Jonas writes so captivatingly and I truly didn’t want to be apart from this book unless I had to be (work, sleep, exercise). I found it so jarring and challenging. I would compare it to This Is Pleasure by Mary Gaskill in the sense that it subverts the female experience in their proximity to sexual assault. I think this concept was so brilliant extrapolated and due to this I was so pissed?? (In a good way). I was really concerned for a while that the opinions that were portrayed in this book were a reflection of the authors but I began to realize it was all intentional—thank god—this being a testament to how brilliant she is. I don’t think any of the characters are redeemable by any measures but I think the exploration of horrible people from the safety of fiction is actually quite fun and it leaves room for you to have some comfort in the fact that it’s make believe (despite knowing deep down people like this really exist). The ending pissed me off but I think the unfortunate impression it leaves the reader with mirrors that of real life but at least in this instance we got some semblance of comeuppance. As I write this review I keep going back to increase the star rating; it started at 3.75 and is now at 4.5. I don’t want to say it was a perfect book but I think something that I can like and loathe so strongly all at once is something quite close to that. If you’ve been thinking about reading this, do it now. Okay I think it actually a 4.75 (subject to change).

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