Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

19 reviews

tashy49's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? Yes

5.0


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clarezillaa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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taro4lyfer's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-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? No

4.75

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Chai Time) has beautiful imagery, multiple points of views from diverse characters, insights into the trauma for Sri Lankan Tamil migrants, as well as a striking portrayal of the Australian landscape regarding immigrants and community. 

The characters are well thought out with their own motivations, desires, and beliefs while both settings (Sri Lanka and Cinnamon Gardens) are captivatingly written. 

Chai Time also won the Miles Franklin award in 2023, which is well deserved. 

The only reason it isn’t 5 stars is because it is definitely the kind of book that requires content and trigger warnings, which it didn't include. Hopefully future editions will include content warnings in the book or a mention online - the online content warnings so far are user written on storygraph or AI generated based off of reviews. 

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sop17hie's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Much sadder and brutal than I expected from the beautiful cover

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katy_heath's review against another edition

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I listened to the audiobook so I may spell names wrong:
Nicky and Gareth are both terrible people, but only Nicky is afforded the grace of grief as an explanation. Even though the author goes as far as to explain that Gareth is hurt and confused by her distance, Nicky is seen as being “in the right” although she’s the one HAVING AN AFFAIR. I couldn’t wade through any more sanctimonious bs about how awful Gareth supposedly is because he’s trying to connect with his wife and she’s cold shouldering him. The stories about Sri Lanka and even some of Reuben’s story are beautiful but I couldn’t stand hearing how much of a victim Nicky is when she didn’t even try to communicate, just ran straight to another wounded man. 

Perhaps if I try a print version, that doesn’t have the readers emotions attached, I’ll get further.

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whatisbethreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad 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

3.75


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drellejay's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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mills33's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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livingbeyondbooks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad 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

5.0

This exceptional text was my first read of 2024. It is a timeless and poignant piece. I can’t recommend this book enough.

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shornified's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0


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