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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
Ich und die anderen by Ditte Bandini, Matt Ruff, Giovanni Bandini
6 reviews
mardana's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Alcohol, Mental illness, and Incest
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Pedophilia, Torture, Death of parent, Suicide, Violence, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Vomit, Grief, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Minor: Blood and Body shaming
root's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The book's problems are these:
- Incredibly rambly, tangential writing style that reads a bit like if a manual writer mixed up their project with their work. It's not even purple prose type of lengthy detail, just objective descriptions of things like what is inside a tent that never becomes relevant to the story.
- On that note, it takes ~300 pages before the author finishes setting up the premise and gets to the actual plot.
- The fact that the book waits until the epilogue before clarifying to the reader that multiple bits of DID misinformation was actually just the way the main character saw it. I'm all for flawed character perspectives and unreliable narrators, but misinformation for a heavily stigmatized and misunderstood disorder is not the place for it. Especially since the plot takes so long that many readers will stop reading before the epilogue.
- The characters are all just deeply unlikeable. The main character is really very self-centered and stalkerish, the love interest is incredibly manipulative and toxic, and the other character feels like she was just tossed in because the plot wasn't interesting enough.
- The dialogue is very awkwardly paced and written.
- Some of the things claimed about DID is just...not really how it works logistically (ordering 10 different dishes at the same time at restaurants because alters, etc).
Graphic: Child abuse, Outing, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic relationship
neni's review against another edition
- 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
There was a nice balance between a mysterious and suspenseful plot that needed to be solved and the slower and more reflective, but no less engaging, personal and relational development of the characters.
I found the development of the relationships between characters (Andrew and Penny, Andrew and Julie), and in particular among the multiple identities within the main character's mind, to be super interesting, and I ended up feeling very attached to most of the household inhabitants.
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Child abuse, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Bullying, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Vomit, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Violence, Body shaming, Grief, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
tangleroot_eli's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, and Transphobia
yarnycharlie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
First, I believe that IRL there are infinite ways to be trans (I, myself, am non-binary and am not trying to speak for the transmasculine experience). So when speaking below, I am not saying that a trans person "must" do these things in order to be trans enough to write about. It's ok to not have dysphoria, it's ok to not want to medically transition, it's ok to decide that you don't want to be called trans. I am speaking specifically to the book, which is, as far as I know, written by a cis man and the responsibility that IMO he has toward marginalized groups that he is (purposefully or not) portraying. There is a lot of places to discuss how and when to write the "other" (i.e. experiences of people with marginalized identities that you do not share), so I won't go there other than to say that writing a marginalized identity does not have to have a "purpose" in your story (i.e. we are here every day doing normal stuff too), but if there is a purpose the author should take a step back and decide if this is the right story that they should be telling (i.e. should a cis author be telling a story of a trans person where the only time their gender is relevant is in relation to trauma or sexualized violence?). .
There is one place where Andy's gender is relevant to the story. First, on that 238th page (of 479 in my copy), Andy is making out with another character and she reaches down between his legs expecting a penis and doesn't find one. Andy does not think of himself as a trans man nor does he nor any of his on-screen souls contemplate their own or anyone else's gender for even a moment. The long and short of what Andy or any of his souls have to say about it is "the body is female". We get detailed descriptions of his daily routines and there is none of the accoutrement that we might expect an author to use to signal a character's transness pre or post-transition (i.e. binders, HRT, etc). Other than a briefly mistaken and quickly realized misgendering of Andy's voice early in the book, there are no hints. This leads be to believe that this was supposed to be a surprise to the reader.
I was so flabbergasted that an author would put a trans character in this position, a situation where many trans people, especially sex workers, have been murdered. Even in the era when this was released (2003), the "gay panic defense" was well known as an attempted defense of murder. The author not only put his character in this situation, even if it only ended in rejection, he also did not equip the character with the knowledge to predict or avoid the situation (i.e. none of the elder souls in Andy told Andrew that this might be an issue and, thinking on it, I don't think they thought it would be since later in the book everyone who knew him as a younger person seems to treat Andy as a strange quirky affectation of the girl they knew). After the situation ends, there is still no reflection on gender or change in behavior.
It could be argued that his gender is relevant in the last section of the book, but I disagree. Other than aggressive and repeated deadnaming and misgendering (which seems to bother no one but the reader), if Andy had not been trans this entire plot could have proceeded with only the change to his actual name and pronouns.
Assuming that our version of the book is one where Andy is a cis man, the only other section that would have to change in order to achieve verisimilitude in tone is where Andy's mother says that she's glad her daughter is going to college because now she won't have to compete for her husband's affection (since right now his "affection" is focused on molesting and raping Andy).
It's pretty clear to me that this "plot twist" was there to titillate cis readers rather than to explore anything about gender. So 3 stars from me and a mental revocation of the Otherwise Award (regardless of whether the award hedges reader ire by saying it awards to infuriating works as well).
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Deadnaming, Death of parent, and Transphobia
Minor: Blood, Car accident, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Misogyny
tasho's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I found some of the plot points to be meandering and the resolutions to early mysteries to be really unsatisfying. Also the main protagonist was a bit flat, and many characters didn’t have much development.
Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, and Mental illness
Moderate: Transphobia