Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

One Hundred Days by Alice Pung

8 reviews

zzara's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

This book was decent, but I found it very frustrating and somewhat circular. It was beautifully written, and I thought it was a lovely description of motherhood (not being a mother myself). However, the incessant emotional abuse of Karuna by her mother was honestly painful for me to read and some points, particularly when

  her mother stole her money every single time she got her hands on some. This happened about three times. I guess abuse is frustrating but I felt as though the author laid the emotional abuse on very thick because it wasn't physical.

I also thought it was so frustrating and borderline unethical that she didn't tell Ray that she had his daughter - I just kinda think if you have someone's baby you have a moral obligation to let them know.

I did like Karuna and her mother's

reconciliation, and how they ended up with a network of people around them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Vomit, Sexual content, and Abortion

apocalyptus's review

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Racial slurs

roraisabella's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

such a well written, and raw story about a mother and daughter relationship. Alice Pung is a great writer and i’ll be for sure reading more from her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse

arkierose's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Medical content and Pregnancy

Minor: Blood and Vomit

stassiaustin's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.5

ONE HUNDRED DAYS by Alice Pung 

CW: Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Confinement, Bullying, Gaslighting. 

What a rollercoaster ride this book puts you through. I read this book relatively quickly as I needed to see how the story progressed. Pung has magnificently crafted a story of love, loss, jealousy and how they can be presented in warped ways. 

OHD explores the complex relationship between mothers and their daughters and how they each navigate growing independence. Ultimately I loved Karuna’s journey and how she grew into herself when she became a mother and how the love for her child gave her a newfound purpose that had been stripped away. 

A confronting but beautiful read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Child abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

carleesi's review

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

I absolutely inhaled this book. Beautifully written with such raw emotion. 

I found it very hard to be okay with how Karuna’s mother treated her. It didn’t matter that it came from love, it was psychological and emotional abuse and manipulation. Every time Karuna almost got help my heart squeezed with hope. I’m glad her mother changed but that doesn’t make it okay.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

kateybellew's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.0

The story of a 16 year old Karuna who falls pregnant in 1980s Melbourne. Her Chinese-Filipino mother is overprotective to the point of abuse, while her white Australian father is passive and largely absent, reneging his responsibilities. Alice Pung captured so well the mind and feelings of teenage Karuna and the claustrophobic setting she was forced to live in, all while she tried to establish (and hold onto) a sense of self under the oppressive thumb of her judgmental mother. It also demonstrates some struggles that seem to be common in migrant and first-generation families finding their place between cultural heritage and assimilation. Overall, a confronting and uncomfortable book executed really well. I can’t wait to read more from Alice.

"There’s not much for me to do now but remember stuff from my past. ‘Re-member-ing’ sounds like putting arms and legs back together. It makes me think of that bad egg Humpty Dumpty, how no one could make him whole again after he shattered. I know I have to break open for you to come out, but I don’t want to think about that.” p. 155

“The worse thing is being forced to lie in bed like a sick person when I am so full of this feral vitality. No wonder all those ladies in Victorian-era novels were depressed and moribund. They couldn’t walk around, work, play or anything. At least they could read, I thought resentfully. Mary Shelley and those sickly Brontë sisters even wrote entire books. Then I realise that those women all had dead mothers.” p. 178

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Confinement

earlgreybooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy