Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

42 reviews

grunbean's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I don’t read non-fiction, this was an exception for a book club. After reading this, I definitely want to try reading more memoirs!

I feel it is important to read this as a memoir as opposed to an essay. While there is analysis and plenty of examples referred to, this reads as a reflection of the author’s own experience with engaging with art created by bad people. Not all the artists are talked about at the same length, and you’ll find that there’s a lot of kinds of monster in here. 

I did find some of the examples of female artists confusing. They don’t generally equate to the literal crimes written about for male artists. It does add some balance, though, if this is in here for balance it may have been interesting to explore queer examples too.

I really enjoyed this, and I liked the conclusion it came too. It definitely encouraged me to think more about the parasocial relationships with artists, and how we can reconcile this when they’re revealed to be bad people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Rape

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, and Alcohol

cryptidskunk's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Particularly loved the section on Lolita and female "art monsters"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Violence

baielleebooks's review against another edition

funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Claire Dederer has a captivating critical voice, flying in the face of that loathsome kind of clinical, self-purportedly detached style of cultural appraisal. Emotion and the structural dynamics of what constitutes one's fandom and moral dilemmas as an art-lover are discussed with great zest and insight. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism and Sexism

Minor: Abandonment

nstew16's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Very accessible. At times it felt almost too casual for me, but I think that is part of the success of the book. It can reach a variety of people and acts as an open ended conversation between reader/author.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Abortion

aburns2's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

dantruman's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

Thoughtful, challenging, informative, reflective. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

The author is not in favor of the above but they come up in relation to the artist’s she discusses.

librarymouse's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

2.75

I don't know that this was necessarily what I was expecting. It was thought provoking at some points. At others, I lost the plot. While critiquing gender essentialism in general and in its association with power dynamics and gender stereotypes, the author often relies on it in the language used around her critique of powerful men.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism

catobeyts's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, and Suicide

monalyisha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

I absolutely loved this. Dederer set out to write an ambitious book & she achieved her goal. Not only that, but she came off as being the kind of “cool” that I’ll only ever aspire to be. Her musical references range from Joni Mitchell to PWR BTTM with all the (plumbed) levels of complexity that implies. Ironically & infuriatingly, the effect is that I now want to watch/read/listen to all of the media she questions the morality of consuming.

I want to (re)watch Annie Hall. Remembering how much I loved Rosemary’s Baby, I want to dive into Polanski’s catalog. Of course, these creators are men who have committed terrible deeds (e.g. anal rape of a 13-year-old). Do we just forget that? 

Dederer says no. She also doesn’t tell her readers NOT to watch/read/listen. Like any good thinker, she gives us more questions than answers. This isn’t a guidebook. Dederer won’t solve your ethical dilemma. She will ask you to lay bare your own reasoning and emotions, your insecurities, your doubts, your loves, your biases. She’ll do it by modeling this behavior on the page. She doesn’t let herself squirm away; she questions whether she is, herself, a monster. She unflinchingly tells you why she sometimes worries she might be.

Ultimately, she’ll tell you not to discount beauty or community. She’ll advise you not to place an undue emphasis on individual consumption. She’ll focus on systemic evils. She’ll tell you that “the way you consume art doesn't make you a bad person, or a good one. You'll have to find some other way to accomplish that.” She’ll encourage you not to forget about these other ways.

I do have a single criticism, which comes in the form of two words: “The Stain.” This is a concept Dederer introduces early on in the book and it’s something that she returns to repeatedly: how an artist’s biography can “stain” their work (spreading backwards and forwards through time), like wine spilled on linen. Unfortunately, this metaphor spills out of her in the chapter about Michael Jackson. 

She writes, “The image of the stain immediately took hold of my brain (an especially poignant image in the context of Michael Jackson and the bleached anti-stain of his skin).” YIKES. Following this logic, blackness becomes “the stain.” I don’t for one second believe that Dederer intended to equate the two. But I wish she’d introduced the metaphor in the chapter about Picasso, when talking about his paints. For me, this single line about “the stain” became a stain on my total & unabashed enjoyment of her book. But I’m trying to convince myself that it was more a quick & clumsy fumble with a cup of coffee than a shattering of a full glass of Cabernet. It might come out in the wash.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Transphobia, Antisemitism, Murder, and Abandonment

ambergamgee's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault