Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Perfect Nanny: A Novel by Leïla Slimani

11 reviews

honeymoan's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

3.75

you really wouldn’t expect anything that has happened in this book. the foreshadowing is brilliantly done and even if you can kind of guess what could happen, you’d never expect it to be as cruel as it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Death, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Body horror, Classism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

weelasswithabook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

CW child murder, racism, domestic abuse, child neglect, parental abandonment, attempted suicide

🌟 Domestic thriller
🌟 Translated work
🌈 Morrocan-French author

I don't even know what to say, but that was wild. 

Written in third person omniscient, The Nanny allows us to truly view the spiral that Louise ends up in, leading her to the crime she has commited, and the varying moments where it could have been prevented. 

There are such subtle point throughout the course of the book which are huge red flags that only us as observers can see, such as the hide and seek game, which made me so uncomfortable, even though it could be viewed as fairly irrelevant. Maybe it's because we knew how the story would unfold, maybe it's parental instinct, but I was uncomfy.

While the book is focused mainly on Louise's experiences, the touches on the kids parents, outside characters, people from Louise's past, we're able to form a fully rounded perception of Louise herself and it's chilling to watch it unfold when you know exactly the point that we end up at.

The prose was wonderful,  and I appreciated how it was written, although there are many other books with the same techniques I haven't liked, Leila Slimani seems to have hit the nail on the head and made it truly work for me. 

My only gripe is how ambiguous the ending was. I know some people love ambiguous endings (such as The Boy Who Loved Tom Gordon, where I loved the book but the ending made me scream into a pillow), but the frustration I feel is always to the extreme. This is a me problem, not an author problem, I just personally need a story fully rounded off and a resolution.

All in all this was extremely enjoyable and I was kept on the edge of my seat even though I knew exactly what was coming. I can definitely see why the author won an award for this. It felt like a unique telling of a common trope and I'm glad I gave it a chance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Blood, Child death, and Cursing

Moderate: Child abuse, Medical content, Racism, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Misogyny and Bullying

schorlett's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Child death, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Classism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Racism

Minor: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Alcoholism

pipss's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Physical abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Grief

cerilouisereads's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Classism

mandi4886's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Stalking, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Suicide

lovestoriesforsuckers's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

my dumbass thought this would be like such a fun age. it was so freaky and well written. i kind of wish i hadn’t read it. but i finished it in less than 24 hours so i guess it’s not boring at least. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Racism, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

laurenleigh's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Picked this up for a reading challenge as a thriller written by a woman, in translation. The original was in French, and there seems to be a few different titles for different publications, so I’ve also seen it as Lullaby. Thriller is probably the best genre definition, but the plot is relatively slow and the big denouement happens “off stage.” I kept waiting for some big reveal, some plot twist that explains this murderous climax, which you’re aware of from page one. The first line is “The baby is dead.” But there were no jump scares, no shocking turn of events that explained why a nanny would snap like this. It was a lot more real for this reason, and I’ve just learned that this was based on a true story. Yikes. There were certainly creepy parts (woah that scene with the chicken bones in the kitchen), but overall, it was more an exploration of class politics, sexism, and privilege. Having a rough backstory doesn’t excuse murdering children obviously, but it was telling to see the careful arrangement of injustice, assault, poverty which lead to the nanny’s violence. The tense feel throughout the book is coming from the nanny’s unraveling, which was well executed, but in the end, I don’t see this story sticking with me for a long time. It just never quite clicked.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Murder, Toxic relationship, and Sexism

fedelikeslego's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? No

4.0

È stato bello leggerlo, ma speravo in qualcosa di più nel finale. Un climax  per poi arrivare al niente. L’autrice si è basata su un fatto vero di cronaca però speravo in qualcosa di più che un libro che risultata essere esclusivamente di cronaca. Do 3 perché è comunque intrigante, forse sono state le varie recensioni che ho letto a definirlo con un genere sbagliato, perché appunto più che mistero e thriller risulta essere una cronaca. L’avessi letto con quell’idea l’avrei apprezzato di più.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, and Racism

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Blood, Murder, Suicide attempt, Racism, Sexual content, and Misogyny

Moderate: Vomit, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Mental illness

Minor: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Rape