Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

3 reviews

louiepotterbook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

What keeps me from giving it 5 stars is that I fear the author did not intend what I got out of it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Incest, Miscarriage, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Suicide, Blood, Gore, Gaslighting, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

adventures_in_bookstagram's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Interesting, occasionally surreal with effective metatextual elements and great performances by Kathryn Drysdale and Russ Bain as the narrators. The central concept is creepy and a bit gross (various men lusting after a woman with a child's brain), but those characters are presented as grotesque and/or pathetic so, to me, it reads as satire of male objectification of women (especially girls), especially when we get Bella/Victoria's perspective in the third act. I enjoyed the blend of genres, with unexpected dips into sci-fi (as a Frankenstein retelling), horror and magical realism (the Scream stands out), travel narratives and pseudo-historiography (I really enjoyed the preface and editor's notes, for example). There was also lots of commentary on classism, gender, misogyny (including medical misogyny), colonialism, regionalism (the main characters are <i>Scottish</i> and that matters!) and socialism and it was interesting to watch the naive and sheltered main character discover and reckon with the world's injustices; her long letter to the male narrator was one of my favourite sections of the novel.  It was also a lot funnier than I was expecting, though it ends on a kind of bitter-sweet note. Finally, I loved its strong sense of place and many references to places in Glasgow! This is a weird one, but well worth reading for its unusual narrative choices and fantastic heroine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Medical content, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Abortion, Incest, and Pedophilia

The central concept flirts with pedophilia without technically actually featuring pedophilia, but some readers may not be comfortable with it. There are also incestuous overtones to the MC's relationship with her Guardian/father figure, according to the male narrator, though his perspective is later called into question. It only features relatively briefly, but the main character is also threatened with a clitoridectomy and shaming female sexual desire is a major theme, this being a novel set in the Victorian era about a sexually-active woman.

gordyfromschool's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Incest, Classism, Physical abuse, Abortion, Body horror, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, and Colonisation