Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

8 reviews

featheredpages07's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Deportation

Moderate: Sexual violence

teacupsandfirereads's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Ooof, that was a tough one. It is dark, heavy and very atmospherical/vivid. I understand that this is what may make it so great for some. For me, it was just a bit much. But I one hundred percent understand the privilege I have in saying this. I enjoyed the story and Dita as a character. The story was multidimensional as were the characters. The translation was done very well; it read like it was written in English. What surprises me is that this is listed as young adult. with the writing style, details and description, I would not say it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Torture, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Confinement, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Cursing, Rape, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Classism, and Deportation

rachel_sheppard's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A heart wrenching book with both the depravity of humanity alongside courage and resilience. It paints a vivid picture of the horror of Auschwitz and the pockets of hope, love, kindness, bravery that could not be stopped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and War

leila_reads_too_much's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual harassment and Pandemic/Epidemic

lilborrower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, and Murder

mjwilliamson's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this book, though saying that makes me feel weird. It was very sad and thought provoking. The idea that these were real people, a real place and real stories was probably the most terrifying thing about it all. But that was also what kept me engaged. I needed to know what happened to these people through it all. Their surroundings were so desolate and depressing that it, in a way, made it feel like I needed to protect them. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

chandle5's review against another edition

emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and War

valeriabee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

 I never understood the desire to be entertained by people's traumas? This book is based on the life of Dita Kraus, and the author took some artistic liberties by fictionalizing parts of her story. For this reason, it is hard to tell what is true and what is not. I have seen people complain that the narration lacks emotion or passion, but I don't see why that emotion needs to be exaggerated when you're dealing with the genocide of a people. Despite being uncertain about the accuracy of the details, I found the book to be honest. You get the sense of dejection, anger, fear, hopelessness, helplessness, rebellion, and perseverance from the prisoners of Auschwitz. The book is honest about deception, it is honest about the desire to be hopeful, the desire to escape, the desire to survive. There were disturbing moments when you realize some prisoners would take advantage of the more vulnerable for their own survival. At the end of the day, they were all desperate to survive. 

I saw someone on GoodReads that they prefer this novel to The Diary of a Young Girl because they found Young Girl to be boring. It is icky to me to desire entertainment from a book about such terrible traumas. I was moved by the honesty of the narrative, independent of the accuracy. It is not five stars because the weird limbo between reality and fiction confuses the narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder