Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura

10 reviews

oliveseidler's review

challenging dark fast-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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexism, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Child abuse

Minor: Misogyny, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

sophmcgraw's review

challenging dark slow-paced

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, Rape, and Torture

machen27's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It's curious to me that this is described in it's "blurb" as a magnum opus, a book about cults and those who fall into them. Perhaps I'm missing cultural context or I didn't read it thoroughly enough, yet I can't shake the feeling that if this is the pinnacle of Nakamura's work, I am not interested in reading his other works. It very much is a story that happens to the protagonists, filled with disjointed flashbacks and dumps of pseudoscientific philosophical nonsense, I found it hard to care about the characters or what happens to them. I think that this is somewhat intentional on Nakamura's part, the plot of the story reflecting the experience of falling into a cult, and I credit the author that. I also struggled with the choice to include gratuitous amounts of sexual content, of which there is much, both consensual and non-consensual. It felt unnecessarily and frankly unrealistic, though I'll admit I have no factual basis for that sense. As for how the book ends,

I found the escalation to an international crisis including conspiracies to engineer this crisis juxtaposed with the idea of it all being done for no reason completely unearned, especially with the protagonist having a seemingly peaceful ending

. Ultimately I think the book failed to grab me because I have no interest in the main subjects of cults, and found that there was little real mystery here, just confusion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Gun violence

cheyraisin's review

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

jet_nebula's review

challenging dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death and Violence

livimw's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

penny_dlc's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

it …. says a lot about society? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Murder

snuggleslut's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

Moderate: Gun violence

saltydough's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

To be frank, this book was not for me. I started it because I wanted to try something new,  but it quickly became a slog. The biggest problem was that I hated all of the characters. I thought they were all terrible people with no redeeming qualities, which made it hard to root for any one of them in particular. Though there was some action that some might find enjoyable, the story often got bogged down in extended side tangents about characters' backgrounds and psychological trauma. Much of the story was really quite repulsive, and some passages were difficult to read. The only part I enjoyed even a little bit were some of the deeper philosophical themes that were discussed, mostly drawn from Buddhism. But honestly, reading straight-up Buddhist theology would probably be more enjoyable than this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Violence, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Gun violence

swordfishtrombone's review against another edition

dark tense

• Loveable characters? No

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Suicide, Confinement, Torture, and Child abuse