Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls

11 reviews

applesodaperson's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

This was definitely a weird book. It reminded me a lot of the Shape of Water, even though I've never even seen that movie. I was also a bit shocked at how old this book is, because I can totally see this having been written right now.
I really liked the fish guy actually. He had a very matter of fact personality, and was just the right amount of unexplained and mysterious. This book was also the perfect length and was better being a short book. The sort of ambiguous ending worked well too, because you never really find out if the fish guy

makes it back to his people. Also, it was absolutely wild that both the best friend and the best friend's daughter were having an ongoing affair with the main character's husband. I totally called that plot twist early on.

There were definitely a lot of themes around grief in this book. When it starts, the main character is grieving the death of her child, which is causing the gulf between her and her husband.

And then later, the fish guy kills the main character's best friend's son. And that brought up a really interesting ethical discussion about why the main character is treating the friend's son's death differently then if he was a stranger.

Overall, this book was really good and very surreal, but I feel like there was some larger metaphor that i was not understanding. Like the fish guy was supposed to symbolize something deeper, but I just either missed it or didn't have the media literacy skills to decipher it.
Listened to on Libby.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Child death and Violence

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I did not like this. Deeply unsatisfying read. I don’t usually rate books based on plot/ending alone, but man was that so little payoff for a seemingly interesting premise.

I liked that in the end Larry was too other, too non-human to continue functioning as Dorothy’s escape or to truly care about human life. I love when authors depict the realistic divide between humanoids; other beings have no reason to talk, think, or act like we do given their separate evolutionary path. I also liked the prose; the sentences were so crisp and concise. It felt like snack reading.

That being said, -2 stars for:
- the sheer amount of fucking salad and veggie descriptions 
- the sometimes hard to keep track of quippy dialogue between Dorothy and Estelle
- the car crash… what an unnecessarily messy conclusion to a whimper of a set of affairs
- Could Sandra have been his kid??????? GROSS
- Estelle also fucking Dorothy’s husband. her knowing who the man was and not telling Dorothy was enough of a betrayal to warrant the silly ending. The rest felt contrived 
- Dorothy finally being free of her cheating, unsupportive husband and perfidious bff, only to be miserable at home looking for a froggy fling that isn’t coming back. she has a lot to work on internally, but the book ended with her not even trying. just going through the same motions.

idk this just wasn’t my cup of tea. i got to the last page and audibly scoffed. what was the point in all that retrospection on humanity and friendship and love just to end the book sad & yearning for a frog in between haunting your uncaught sex offender husbands grave. ugh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Death and Child abuse

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Torture

m_liz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Child death

Minor: Sexual content

laura227_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Miscarriage and Sexual content

kananineko's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity

Moderate: Miscarriage and Xenophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Violence, Car accident, Death, Sexual assault, and Torture

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Violence

ottercorg's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

I picked this one up after seeing it in an article, recommended to those who enjoyed Where the Wild Things Are as a child. It was my favorite, so naturally I wanted to give this one a shot. 

This was easy, funny, and pleasant. I loved the conversations, particularly between Dorothy and Estelle - they felt so natural and real, as if I was right there in the room with them. 

I enjoyed Ingalls’ writing style, and enjoyed the plot. The only reason I’m not giving it a full 5 stars is because the ending was SO fast I nearly got whiplash and it was almost hard to follow. The pace suits the events of the ending, but still, I would’ve appreciated a little more. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Death, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child death, and Murder

nialiversuch's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Addiction, Child death, Car accident, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Grief, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual content

blewballoon's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

This book certainly affected me. I was unsettled, disturbed, and upset in the end and it stuck with me for a while. Most of the characters apart from Dorothy are almost comically awful, but not comically enough for it not to be distressing. Even during the parts of the book where pleasant things are occurring, there is a constant undercurrent of tension and dread. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Rape, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

maggywaggy's review against another edition

dark hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Amazing

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, and Child death