Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

191 reviews

zeldazonks's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Femcel, American Psycho vibes. 
This book made me feel so icky and just despondent in a way I'm not sure I've experienced when reading a book before. It was genuinely challenging to read but also so compelling. I've read a lot of books with unlikeable, problematic women protagonists but Irina Sturgess is on another level.
I didn't like the pacing of the text conversations, perhaps it works better not as an audiobook but it was quite tedious for the more mundane text threads of them arranging nights out or whatever, and that put me off a little. But when you're just listening to Irina's villain monologues it's horrifically fascinating. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Eating disorder, Murder, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

unhingedreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

My current favourite book, I have recommended it to too many people to count. I have listed some trigger warnings attached to this review and this book will certainly not be for everyone. I would recommend the audiobook version as the author narrates it and it really adds to the experience.

This book is a very visceral read, without giving too much away it has an unreliable narrator and many twists and turns. 

Irina is the kind of friend that you warn people about, she is manipulative and gaslights those around her. Somewhat similar to a car crash scene that you know you shouldn’t look at, but can’t quite look away from. She has some interesting pastimes including drug and alcohol abuse, which she seems to utilise as a crutch to escape her current reality of the under appreciated artist. Apart from her bar job her main career focus is photographing generic looking men that she scouts on the streets of Newcastle. Her photography specialises on fetish art and the book follows her attempting to revive her career whilst being entirely horrible to anyone in her vicinity.

There’s many reasons I enjoyed this book, it sticks with you. Irina’s perspective will have you want to laugh at her dark wit and recoil at her true desires.

I have had the pleasure of meeting the author Eliza Clark who is a very down to earth person that writes some pretty messed up books. I would look into some of her interviews because I really think it adds to the overall narrative of the book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Murder, Body horror, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Bullying, Alcohol, Body shaming, Classism, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

tayo2000's review

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this. 

Boy Parts is a thoroughly engrossing (and gruesome? Brutal? Unhinged??) exploration of gender and sexuality. The power of men over women looked at through the lens of a female protagonist (antagonist?) flipping the narrative on its head. I think I will certainly need some more time to fully digest this and sort my thoughts. Rest assured though this is a five star read. 

Irina is also a sociopath, but that’s a conversation for another time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, and Drug use

Moderate: Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Self harm, Sexual content, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, and Emotional abuse

houseofjules's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I liked this book, it made me realize that I find stories about fucked up women fascinating. 

It also made me realize that this is what My Year of Rest and Relaxation wants to be and falls drastically short. I have also seen this compared to American Psycho but for girls. And you know what, I liked that story as well (I've only watched it, not read it). 

I think this says something bad about me, just not sure what. But I think this is a successful story because of the commentary rather than the behavior displayed by the MC. I mean, girlfriend needs therapy BAD. But her support system failed her from the beginning, starting with her relationship with her mother and the things she goes on to experience in her early years.

 This is pretty privilege at play as well, which allows her to get away with lots of things. In fact its the main question she tried to find an answer to. This book feel like running your tongue over a recently extracted tooth. Painful, horrifying even, but hard to stop exploring. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Grief, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Bullying, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Gore, Body shaming, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Rape, Self harm, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

swagboat69's review against another edition

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Rape, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Violence

janainthebooks's review

challenging dark funny fast-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Torture, Cursing, Toxic friendship, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder and Alcohol

documentno_is's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I went into Boy Parts largely blind and was better for it, the shock factor and depravity of the slow unveiling of the nature of our protagonist was more impactful than had I known what to expect. I hated every moment of being in this character's head and yet grapple with

the ways in which she can be both predator and victim.  Our main character is a master of manipulation and drowning in her own narcissism yet we see the multitude of ways she is failed by those around her, fueling her perversions.

In many ways reading this novel felt unbearable, both in the situations conjured up and the thought processes we are made privy to. This book felt cutting and revolting in the same ways

Lolita does

. My only complaint was the plot post London visit, for as shocking and fast paced as it was for the first 4/5ths of the story it puttered out

rather ungracefully to an unsatisfying ending of repetitions as is common of unveiling your central underlying "secret" too early on. We are left in liminal space of not knowing how much of our character's recollection is psychosis and how much is sociopathy, undoing much of the suspense of earlier on.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Drug use, Death, Biphobia, Sexual violence, Blood, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Alcoholism, Vomit, Rape, Violence, Torture, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Dysphoria, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Classism, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Alcohol, and Abandonment

pantslint's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I wouldn't call this an enjoyable read, but it certainly is an engaging one. It's really accessible, with contemporary speech and pop culture references. And it's like watching a catastrophic train wreck happening in slow motion, on a foggy day,

until suddenly you get clocked in the head with a giant camera.

Irina is hilarious and a great unreliable narrator—she had me feeling like I was descending into a k-hole with her, questioning her version of reality alongside everyone else around her.
I love how women are written here, how they (and ultimately, we) are both victims and perpetrators of misogyny and the male gaze.

Mom to Irina. Irina to Flo, Sera, and literally everyone else.

I wonder what the fuck I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat, you know? It's like... am I even doing this shit? Have I even fucking done anything?

Irina's pretty privilege doesn't make her immune to gender based violence (the opposite, actually), but her literal crazy psychotic bitch behavior is just chalked up to 💅 hot girl shit. Men literally don't see her as dangerous in the same way that women find men dangerous.

Lots to ponder from this book—makes me want to explore other books with similar themes that other reviewers mentioned, like My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and Tampa by Alissa Nutting.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, and Pedophilia

Minor: Animal death

isaarusilor's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Body horror, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Vomit, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, and Injury/Injury detail

stories_of_the_soul27's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I am very happy that this genre exists. This genre could have its own literature course very easily. 

Irina is unlikable and unreliable. She is cruel, unhinged and broken (?). She is powerful in the sense that she knows the screws she needs to tweak to get her ways. She picks up this average looking men and makes them feel desirable by clicking racy pictures of them. The whole power dynamics is so hypnotic. She is so controlling and manipulative of her subjects. They bow to her because she plays her part well. She knows how to dress, how to talk and exactly how to reply to keep everyone on the hook. She fishes the insecure ones and completely exploits and uses them. There’s certain kind of cruelness to her. She sneers when she hears her male contemporary getting awards and recognitions by photographing already sexy women models while Irina is building things literally from scratch with average looking men. 

The jump between present and past was so smooth and the timing was rightly done. Her crazy actions completely threw me off sometimes. Irina does a lot of unjustified things. And she will continue to do so unless she has a massive breakdown or she is stopped. She was abused in her teenage years and the way her mother treats her to this day is another reason why Irina cannot be nice to anyone. Irina is mean and vile through to her core. She does not even spare strangers without acting against them even it is in small ways. She is obsessed with being skinny in the most unhealthy ways. She cannot let go of her girl best friend whom she just wrings and uses like a dishcloth. 

Irina’s job is one which has also put her in harm’s way. Calling unknown men to her home to be photographed in a fetishised way her cost her security. Still she plowed on. Stupid or brave? A disparity definitely because if roles were reversed it is again women only who are in danger. Irina is also a regular drunk and addict. This has also lead to her safety issues. She knows this and yet she goes on with this lifestyle. She is self destructive. Either she believes that the worst has already happened to her or she believes that she won’t let the men (or patriarchal society) stop her from living her life the way she wants. 

The books after second half goes on to becoming more dark and visceral. More of Irina’s unhinged actions are thrown a light upon. She asks a question at one point about how far she can take it before someone tells her to fuck off without trying to justify her actions. I think she is frustrated for not being taken seriously because she is a woman from a working class with a middle class upbringing. The world she is trying to venture into and life she wants to build for herself is one full of posh, upper class people. It is very far out of her reach. 

I do believe our surroundings while growing up make us who we are. Part of Irina is because of that. But I also believe that we are our choices. So yes some part of Irina is crazy like a psycho. She simply likes violent shit and is always willing to take it a bit too far. Her choice of movies and what she does to her models is evidence of that. But yes she is a victim too. 

I will reread this book again after a few years later and try to critically judge the themes then after reading a bit more of books in this genre.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Addiction, Body horror, Blood, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault