Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn

26 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

5.0

Evocative, but haunting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual assault, Racism, Mental illness, Dysphoria, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Abandonment, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Classism, Pregnancy, Cursing, Death, Outing, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Miscarriage

Minor: Gun violence, Police brutality, Colonisation, Vomit, Excrement, Abortion, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Animal death

Colorism, Gentrification

onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

In Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn, we meet the protagonist of the same name and witness two of her journeys; one is her physical journey from a fictional city in Jamaica to New York City, and the second is her emotional journey between mother and individual person in this world.  Initially Patsy immigrates to the U.S. to be with her dear friend and once romantic partner, Cicely, and she leaves behind a young daughter, Tru.  The story splits from here and we follow Patsy’s life in NYC and Tru’s life in Jamaica, living with her father.  Both are struggling to understand their feelings for each other and their own identities, with very little communication between them.  

 

This novel was a very slow read for me, intentionally, so I could sit with the characters and try to understand them and not judge their choices (always my goal with books really, some just need more intention).  The writing is beautiful and evokes feelings – not always positive – for the characters.  It shines a light on a tough fact that many don’t want to hear – that motherhood and womanhood are not always working in partnership.  In this book, you witness them in conflict.  Patsy can’t seem to make them line up and she chooses her needs above all, with rippling effects for those around her.  It’s an emotional and deep read and if you like sinking into a book that’s very character-driven, this is an excellent choice.  

 

Content warnings: Abandonment, Self-harm, Homophobia, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Alcoholism 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Racism, Self harm, and Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

emmalange102's review

challenging emotional 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Rape

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Sexism

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

ajdotcom's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

The emotions in this book really caught me off-guard. Taking place over 10+ years, it's a complicated and nuanced story of motherhood, the immigrant experience and queerness, told from the third-person points of view of Patsy, a Jamaican woman living in New York, and Tru, her daughter who she left in Jamaica. It took me a while to get into- although I think that says more about my being used to being catered to as a white reader from the Global North than it does about Dennis-Benn's writing- but the second half was absolutely breathtaking. From the 50% mark, I finished it in four days. I nearly cried near the end, and I couldn't put it down in my final reading session. I highly recommend- and I especially recommend sticking with it if you're finding it hard to get into at the start.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Mental illness

Moderate: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, and Sexual assault

The triggering content ramps up in the second half, with

flashbacks to child sexual abuse and a miscarriage, and a graphic suicide attempt.

The first half contains some descriptions of racism and depression.

daisydoolie's review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

This book really moved me - really recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Homophobia, Self harm, and Racism

sikah42's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Being from the Caribbean, its refreshing to read a book with actual creole in it. It made me so excited to read those parts and made me feel closer to home. I felt seen.
Patsy is a very complicated woman having gone through so much trauma at such a young age, it’s understandable why she did the things she did.
She does make some dumb decisions, like when

She slept with Fiona’s boyfriend. He clearly had nothing to offer her besides a good time. If she really just wanted to sleep with the next available body, she should have just slept with the store owner. That guy would at least be beneficial to her struggle. Getting to this part almost made me drop the book entirely, but I wanted to know if she ever redeemed herself in Tru’s eyes./

. The ending was bittersweet but satisfying

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cultural appropriation

missjonesreads's review

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book led to some interesting conversations about books that do not follow the traditional story map and answered the question: what happens when the book starts with a turning point? 
It was an interesting premise but it was a tad too long for my liking. I wasn’t a big fan of Patsy so at some points her chapters dragged for me. I was way more interested in Tru’s perspective and development throughout the novel and was happy to read more about her towards the end. 
Although I enjoyed this book, it’s not one I would revisit often or at all unless I wanted to revisit Tru specifically. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Self harm

wordsofclover's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault

rigbees's review

challenging emotional 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

Lately, I've been skeptical of trauma novels recommended to me, particularly if the person recommending them to me doesn't share an identity group with the author. This isn't because the trauma novel is bad or that the story shouldn't be shared. Rather, I'm skeptical about the way in which we consume trauma for entertainment. Even when an author is discussing painful experiences, the audience is not always there to listen.

Patsy is a novel that's about trauma and (eventually) healing from it. The novel follows Patsy, the title character, as she leaves her daughter in Jamaica and overstays her travel visa to the United States. Patsy experiences difficult challenges and lacks community support, both in Jamaica and as she gets established in NYC. The bulk of the book is about the way she struggles through life, managing to continue moving forward but failing to thrive. However, by the end of the novel

she starts to find healing through her relationship with Claudette, when she is able to embrace aspects of her identity that she's suppressed since being assaulted as a teenager.

Alongside Patsy's story is woven in the experiences of the child she left behind, Tru. 

This book is well-written. I am glad that I read it, as it talks frankly about difficult experiences of racism, homophobia and trauma. It is written, in my opinion, as a novel aimed at those who have experienced similar circumstances. I think that it's a very good novel overall, and one that enriched my life in reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, Biphobia, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Racism

Minor: Hate crime

carlybellesbooks's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

Moderate: Homophobia, Self harm, Rape, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia