Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

65 reviews

lani03's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty

moonbloomandgrow's review against another edition

challenging dark funny tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This was my book club’s pick for August and I honestly don’t think I’d have stuck it out and read it all if it wasn’t. Unfortunately I struggled to get into this book and found myself googling vocabulary and cultural references too much to fully feel like I could get stuck in. I did enjoy the camaraderie that eventually grows between the women of the village and admired their strength and quick wit but the dark humour was a little bit hard for me to take given then amount of abuse and trauma the book delves into. It’s definitely one that I wish I’d read the trigger warnings for before reading but it was eye-opening to learn about how things are in remote villages such as the one featured in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

readbykrispy's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

amanda_reads89's review

challenging hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

arnoles's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful inspiring medium-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? Yes

5.0

I absolutely LOVED this book and could barely put it down for about the last 2/3 of the story. I really liked the liberal use of dialogue, which felt so authentic and really fleshed out each character's unique personality and perspective. I cared about all the women so much by the end. it's a huge testament to the author's excellent writing that she was able to create so many vibrant, well developed characters and craft an action packed plot in just over 300 pages without anything feeling rushed or unearned. The subject matter of the book is very dark, but Schroff's writing is filled with humor and humanism. I genuinely laughed out loud throughout the book. I will be excitedly looking forward to this author's next publication!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infertility, Pedophilia, Suicide, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, and Death of parent

itsredandread's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Slavery, and Religious bigotry

rosietomyn's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

burnedstory's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved it. Shroff has acquired the feat of telling such a heavy story, portraying such heavy issues in such a humours but impactful way. A real page turner. Often when talked about India casteism is not talked about, it's like an unspoken devil in the nation but the way it was written in the story, I applaud it (Here I understand my privelige of being an upper caste person and not knowing even the tip of discrimination). The humour in the story in my opinion is commendable, shows the strength and courage of these women. Shroff says, she wanted to honour the Bandit Queen, Phoolan Mallah and I think she acheived that in a wonderful way. One of the major takeaways for me from the book was the power of female friendship, how these women stood behind each other warmed my heart. As we talk about feminism in the modern world, somewhere we forget about women like Geeta, Saloni, Farah and co. So I am very grateful to get to read their story. One where they are not put on pedestals, one where they are human and make wrong decisions and face the consequences of it. It's beautiful to read.
If "I support women's rights and women's wrongs" could be a book this very well might be it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Murder, and Gaslighting

volunteerpyromancer's review against another edition

challenging dark funny 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

4.0

A little serious, a little mean girls, a little comedy of errors, a little revenge.

Compelling women and frenemies create an enthralling reading experience.

The only drawback to this book was there were times when it could be heavy handed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, and Pedophilia

legs_n_chins's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I fluctuated a lot while reading in the first half, oscillating between deep appreciation for the commentary being made, and exhaustion with what I found to be a bit over the top situations. But I realized at some point that I just wasn’t taking it with the right mindset — having read a thriller most recently and some other more straightforward books before that — and once I let myself just enjoy the sort of soapy nature of the humor it was just a fantastic ride to the end. The author, I think, balanced the humor very well with the heavy subject matter, and it offered the right amount of levity in the right places in my opinion. The tone was consistent throughout and the author even made that seem easy. It dragged a bit in some places for me, taking it down a peg or two, and I know some of the characters were written to be rather dislikable but for me that just made them hard to read sometimes.

I thought the subject matter was handled very well. The author addresses intersectionality, female oppression, rape culture, and domestic violence and its associated trauma with definite care. Over the past several years I’ve grown extremely critical of media that uses the abuse of women as some sort of plot device to push the narrative along, but then just sort of forgotten a little later when it stopped being useful to the plot. I never felt like that was happening in this book. Any instance of abuse that was discussed or depicted did not just get set aside or ignored completely once the next action was set in motion. It lingered and it was present throughout the rest of the story and it mattered to the character development. It lended a lot of the necessary seriousness to these situations despite the humor that the author included throughout the book. And it was difficult to read in some places, yet not exploitative or voyeuristic.

I was very impressed with how the author wrote from the main character’s point of view, too. Geeta wasn’t the most pleasant protagonist, yet I was rooting for her the whole time. Even in moments when she was really unlikable, the sort of exasperation and irritation I felt didn’t last long. She had very obvious flaws, but I liked seeing which ones she worked out and which just sort of were part of her personality that she had to work around rather than just grow past. It was also very cool how Geeta was unreliable in certain aspects concerning her perception of self and her relationships, but the author made it clear she was reliable regarding the actual plot related events occurring throughout the story. It’s just really good characterization in my opinion.

And on a somewhat more background note, I really appreciated learning more about Indian culture through this book. Some of the Hindi beliefs and the depiction of the caste structure and general portrayal of day to day life in a village like this one, it was all woven in organically without feeling like an infodump that took me out of the narrative. I’m not always great with the classroom sort of learning, all strict informational teaching, but this not only educated me in a lot of things I didn’t know, it did it in a way that I’m more likely to actually remember some of it because it’s been presented in a more real world context. I just find that quite cool.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism