Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Biz Hayvanlar by Justin Torres

12 reviews

anindistinctaccountant's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Outing

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, and Religious bigotry

vivvs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

read in 2 hrs … just didn’t strike enough of a chord with me to get over 3 stars. heartbreaking though. 

everyone who says it was “too perverse” has never read anything heavy. the metaphors and symbolism were conveyed just fine for me. if you aren’t ready for a book that talks about sex in disgusting ways don’t start here i guess? …

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Outing

specificwonderland's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

In a way, not too much happened in this brief novella. In another way, so much happened. To list out the plot points is novella-length, a truncated bulleted list. To describe the characters' inner workings is a much larger project. I felt for these brothers and their survival. You could see how Paps exerted his influence but the kids didn't fully shrink away or lose themselves until the final threads of the story got woven. He exerted his influence on the mom from day 1, to everyone's detriment. You could feel the helplessness of the kids being swept along with the parents' bullshit. You hope kids are well cared for by competent parents but that's not always the case. Parents can just be people, and people are imperfect to some degree. And what a cast of ancillary characters: the neighbor, the bus driver and the mom's coworker Camrade. Re: the neighbor, it's infuriating that kids could be outside bouncing a ball yelling about the abuse they were bearing and the neighbor would be like, 'Hmmm this is a perfect time to show neglected kids incest porn'. But you know that happens in small towns, big towns, rich towns, poor towns. These kids never stood a chance, but they had each other.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

sorenzs's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful writing style. Beautiful book. Some parts were hard to get through - in the emotional sense - but I couldn’t stop reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Outing, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction and Infidelity

sassyram's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, and Sexual content

librarymouse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad

• 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

5.0

This book pulls at the threads of humanity, fraying the fabric until it's distilled to its purest parts. The narrator shows the core memories of childhood, building up into the moment of the fracturing of his family unit and the unit that was made up of his brothers. Their childlike, experimenting, queered, and crushed mother makes such a complex character, as does their father and the juxtaposition of his tenderness and machismo. This book is truly unsettling and full of life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Outing

Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

fructosebaby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, and Outing

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, and Alcohol

callmeamelia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Racism and Violence

Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual content

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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? No

4.0

An interesting look at childhoods packed with trauma. Not a particularly uplifting read, but interesting (I think this is a novel in verse, but am not sure since I listened to the audio). Content warnings for domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, sexual acts performed in front of children, homophobia, and forced institutionalization.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Outing, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape

Nonconsensual sex with a married partner, parents having sex in front of their children

tilo's review against another edition

dark sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

The writing style is beautiful in a way that is almost haunting. However, unfortunately, the story tried to build up to something that never really came and what was presented in the last chapters came out of left field so that I feel like it did not do justice to the important topic. The last chapters, therefore, ignored all other points that were brought up just to start something else last minute.
The book was said to be about three brothers "tightly bound and fiercely loyal to one another" which made me want to read it. Yet, despite few instances, most of the book was about the brothers differences, them bullying each other, and their bound consisted of them living in the same toxic household while doing the bare minimum to support each other.
A lot of interesting plotlines were hinted at, none of them explored. Those hints hooked me and made me want to finish it. I wanted to learn more about the characters, although they felt stereotypical, so I feel like a longer version of this book that took the time to explore the individual paths of the brothers (especially the oldest whom I expected to play a bigger role with the constant hints at his ideals and plans) would have really used the potential of this story. Alternatively, considering the powerful writing style, I feel like this could have been written in poems, catching the essence and rawness while only allowing glimpses that do not ask for further exploration.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and Outing

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual violence