Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

33 reviews

cleo_wylde's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Incest, Sexual violence, and Islamophobia

emcatbee's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is a difficult read, but so easy at the same time...its concisely uplifting but represents so well the issues facing the LGBT+ community, and the way that changes for brown people.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Murder

tahmida's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism and Vomit

bookishbea's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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

4.75

Great book, but for mature teens. If you want to skip the graphic stuff, then just don't read the grandmother's journal entries. I didn't, and understood the story just fine. Other than the content issues (which really add to the gritty plot) it is an emotional book that is desperate yet hopeful. A truly moving (and harrowing) way of portraying being a lesbian within an unsupportive (downright hateful, actually) family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

A man is murdered (off-page) due to his sexuality.

tintinmd's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I was in a dark place when I started this book. It was a beautiful journey, and helped me channel many feelings. It gave me hope and a very important affirmation that the life that you deserve to live the life you want to live. It's worth fighting for. And your story deserves to be heard as much as anyone else's.

The writing felt a little choppy in the beginning but I loved the story!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexism, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Violence, Vomit, and Islamophobia

ldandridge's review against another edition

emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.25

Great characters, wide range of emotions, and excellent depiction of family dynamics and the pull that American children of immigrants often feel (I see it frequently among my high school students). I especially liked the relationships Rukhsana had with her cousin as well as with her younger brother. It's also always fun for me to read books that take place (partially, in this case) in Seattle. My one gripe is that the audiobook reader would say "u double u" instead of the regionally accepted "udub" when referencing UW.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Child abuse and Death

Minor: Alcohol

Lots of references to arranged marriages and in general the parents of the protagonist are very controlling and react very poorly to finding out their daughter is a lesbian. But that's the whole point of the book (

and it has a

happy

ending

) so just make sure you know what you're getting yourself into!

atrkula's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, and Panic attacks/disorders

redbookpanda's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

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

So this was a pretty difficult book. It took me a while to get into it, because the friends of the MC as well as her girlfriend were just so annoying. I honestly couldn't wait for her to get to Bangladesh, because that meant that I wouldn't have to see these three girls all the time.

While I did like a lot of the other relationships in the book (the cousin, the grandma and the brother were some of my favourite characters and of course we can't forget the new friends the MC makes along the way) I really wished that the girlfriend did not exist. Their whole relationship just did not work for me. 

I also kinda hated the ending because it was way too over the top?? The parents really went from calling a djinn catcher on their daughter to trying to set her up with other girls in like 20 pages and I was not here for that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Homophobia

siyak_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Vomit

karlsmariels's review

challenging 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Racism