Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

5 reviews

quinn24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

Lionel Shriver can write so well I just wish her bigoted beliefs weren’t consistently clawing their way onto the page completely unnecessarily.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Genocide, Vomit, and Classism

megelizabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this, having had it sitting on my shelves for ages and having heard so much about it over the years. It's a slow, dense read, and not at all an enjoyable one, but definitely a fascinating one overall. The ending also really surprised me, and it's definitely well-written and cleverly thought-out as a whole. The main thing that stopped me giving this a higher rating is that, while the protagonist is clearly deliberately unlikeable, there were times where it wasn't clear whether particular awful things were purely Eva or instead were reflective of the author's views. I also really struggled to see any real love or connection between Eva and her husband, which made that element of the story (and it's quite a big one) super hard to care about or link with everything else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Genocide

iiisabelle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Minor: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

townmarshboy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Body shaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

triangular_pascal's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

2.75

Extremely uncomfortable to read -then again, perhaps that's the point, to confront that which makes us uneasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Classism