Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

69 reviews

tarajsharma's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.75

A highly prescient novel. Hard to read in parts, but I was never not hooked. I haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale, but I imagine the overall spirit is the same -  speculative fiction, only about

genetic engineering rather than feminism-eroding religious fervour

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

joshgroven's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

some uncomfortable stuff happening in here but pretty interesting overall

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mionnechan's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

"À quel moment force-t-on la note, à quel moment va-t-on trop loin?" 

Voilà la citation qui résume à la perfection ce roman.
 Parce qu'on contemple les conséquences de l'humanité sur une Terre pas si lointaine de la notre. Des effets météorologiques extrêmes, plus rien, plus de civilisation.. Juste Snowman. Le dernier homme. 
 C'était une lecture difficile par tous les sujets qu'elle aborde, parce que - contrairement à ce que j'avais pensé - nous n'avons pas un récit d'un nouveau monde mais de la chute de l'ancien. À travers les souvenirs fugaces, flous et désorientés de Snowman, on comprend que les humains allaient droit dans le mur depuis très longtemps, mais que le coup degrâce a été porté par une unique chose.

Un autre homme, Cracker, qui est pourtant à la base de la nouvelle civilisation, celle de ces humanoïdes naïfs et sans défauts, du moins pour le moment. Nous avons également Onyx et tout ce qui l'entoure. Son histoire m'a vraiment mis mal à l'aise (je sais que c'était l'effet recherché) mais je ne m'attendais pas à tomber sur de la pédophilie décrite si crûement.

J'ai eu du mal à rentrer dans le récit, mais je pense avoir du mal avec la plume d'Atwoodmême si j'adore ces récits de dévstations qu'elle nous livre. Le passage du passé au présent était logique, mais m'a dérangée au final.
 Il était pour ainsi dire impossible de s'attacher au personnage principal, même avant la fin. 

Quoi qu'il en soit, cette lecture m'a bouleversée par les similitudes qu'elle a avec notre réalité, et par ce qu'elle cherche à faire.
 Je ne sais pas si je lirais la suite, mais cette lecture m'a beaucoup fait réfléchir. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Medical content

opossumble's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

elm45's review against another edition

dark funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal death

violator's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mybestfriendsarefictional's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

agnela's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm left speechless.
This book will make an impact on you, you will feel it, you want it or not. You will feel like Snowman, you will feel like the world has crumbled, you will feel like someone you liked and cared about just died. You will feel like you have to be loyal to Oryx and save Cake's children, because she asked, not because he did. You will notice so much that should have been only fiction but we had to deal with ourselves. Look, this is a book you would read again and again, if only it wasn't 400 pages long. I swear to you. It starts slow, and it picks up even slower, but when it does, you suddenly understand that you are driving down a hill and your breaks just broke. Damn, I want to read it again and look for things I didn't notice the first time. 
I can't tell if Margaret is a genius or a prophet. But before you take this book, check the content warnings, there's a lot, even if most aren't graphic it's still there, some even don't have a dedicated warning, like experiments with animals. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

Minor: Car accident

benthewriter's review

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Pedophilia, and Murder

mad_kling's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I didn’t dislike this book. I was intrigued from the start with Atwood’s world building as well as the flashes between past and present, and I think she executed that aspect very well. The middle was a little bit of a slog, but otherwise she builds tension excellently and by the last quarter of the book my heart was pounding again as everything began to reveal itself and subsequently collapse. 
What I wasn’t crazy about is how Oryx (as well as every other woman besides Jimmy’s mother) was portrayed. I understand that we are receiving information through the POV of a guy with some severe mommy issues and a deeply damaged perception of women as talking fleshlights. I also have enough media literacy to get that we aren’t supposed to find any of these characters admirable, and Atwood is certainly not endorsing all thoughts or actions of these characters. But it’s insane to me how little we get to know about one of the book’s titular characters. Oryx is a sex doll and a puppet to the very end.
It’s very clear that Jimmy never actually loved her, or even saw her as a person—he just wanted someone to save, or save him. So it makes sense why we never got to see anything but the traumatic backstory that Jimmy wrung out of her. But I would have loved to see more of her inner world, what she actually felt about what was going on, her joy, her sadness, her rage. And for her to stop saying Jimmy’s name so fucking much. 
It’s possible that I was just hoping in the end that this would be a different, kinder book than the one I got. Of course that’s a pipe dream. Atwood is an excellent writer, but from what I’ve read of her books, I don’t think she’s a benevolent one. 
I’ll be trying to wrap my head around what I just read for the next couple days. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Trafficking, and Pandemic/Epidemic