Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

8 reviews

jordan_noel's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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

4.25

I was expecting this book to be about three sisters reuniting while grieving over their newly-deceased mother. I was not expecting so many important societal issues to follow.

This book talks about the patriarchy (specifically in India), MeToo and women's rights movements, female feticide, marriage, spirituality, and how to connect and adapt to different situations in order to preserve the most important relationships.

I loved these characters and grew closer to them as they slowly learned to trust one another and deconstruct the difficulties of their childhoods together. The only real flaw to me was that the characters didn't feel entirely real as they began to transition into a better relationship with each other. It was close, but just not quite there I don't think.

Overall, I thought this book was great and necessary for anyone learning to sacrifice a bit of their pride to repair lost connects with people they love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Abortion, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Racism

Minor: Police brutality, Rape, Alcoholism, Cursing, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse

There is a section of the book (maybe 1 page detailing the event and 10 pages mentioning it) about police brutality. In this same area, a group of girls recite sexual assault statistics and detail a rape that occurred recently in a major city---it's very news-like. One character has an alcohol dependency, but it's only really mentioned in the first third of the book and she's making efforts to escape it from the time we know her. One character is in a toxic relationship and experiences emotional and physical abuse. There are heavy instances of misogyny and sexual harassment for the characters once they're in India.

Additionally, a big theme of the novel is women being forced to abort female fetuses in traditional Indian families.

Several characters get pregnant and one experiences multiple miscarriages. The book starts with the characters losing their mother to cancer. The daughters grieve their mother throughout the story as they fulfill her final wish for them.

suz_n_van's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Infertility, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Abortion, and Suicide

saliwali's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Suicide, Abortion, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Medical content, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Mental illness, Animal death, Bullying, and Grief

katebates_library's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Infertility, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

caedy's review

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

apassporttoliterature's review

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Death of parent, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship

whatannikareads's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5/5!

i thought this was such a lovely emotional story about sisterhood, womanhood, and motherhood. this book takes you on a not-so-perfect journey around india, in the efforts to fulfill these three sisters' mother's last wish for them. but the sisters aren't close—both for current reasons and for troubles in their childhood, and the journey becomes a test to see how long they can last this trip.

i really enjoyed how the conflicts of the sisters' traumas and current situations unravels. each sister is really well-developed and feel like real people. it's also a lovely little travel escape since we're all stuck at home (although it does have the irritating elements of family vacations we're all familiar with). i teared up towards the end bc women are so strong and can get through it if we listen and support each other!!!

it's not a straight 5 bc there is one relationship that i couldn't get myself to justify, and i felt that the mother's reaction to it was reasonable bc i really don't think it was ok even in real life ****POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT***** the age difference was too much for me and if it the genders were flipped we would NOT be having it, so i think that bit was a little unnecessary.

other than that, it was a really nice story that i think you'd enjoy if you have sisters, if you're first gen (especially first gen Indian), and/or if you're coping with the loss of a loved one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

nicoleh's review

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship