Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

33 reviews

milksoup's review

dark

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.0

a collection of stories about women hurt and humiliated by men and women who, more often than not, want to be hurt and humiliated by men. chock-full of violent straight sex - even when the character in focus of the story is in love with another woman, you will read descriptions of her having straight sex. repetitive elements of a twin bond, the cold north, lumberjacks, hunting. the blurb on the back of the polish edition calls it feminist, i dont see anything remotely related to feminism here. reading this felt like reading torture porn - but for women.

if you want to read about women being hurt over and over by men, usually sexually and often willingly, this is a book for you. why anyone would want that thought, i cant imagine

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Self harm, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Violence, Sexual harassment, Grief, Emotional abuse, War, Vomit, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Car accident, Blood, Physical abuse, Death, Rape, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, and Sexism

sakisreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.5

This is my first time reading Roxane Gay (late to the game, I know) and gosh, this collection was not an easy read! The stories below felt the most memorable for me:

‘I Will Follow You’ doesn’t need many words to be hard-hitting. Content warnings for this one (and every story after) are included below. Fuck Mr. Peters 😫

‘Florida’ was great fun. A bit fucked up, definitely, but also real. I could picture every one of these characters 🫠

‘How’ was so interesting. How life can feel so trivial, yet people can be going through things you just never know about! 😳

Loved Hanna and Laura’s little love story and how they managed to get away with Anna, Logan and the baby ✨

‘Pilgrim’ was so interesting, because it feels taboo to talk about the heartbreak of losing a child. This felt sharp and succinct 🥲 Wholeheartedly heartbreaking and yet the lack of feeling was clearly so intentional!

‘Glass’ was familial and so messy. Loved that 🙊

All in all, I’m rating this collection 3.5 out of 5 stars. I’m looking forward to exploring more of Gay’s works ✨ 

Content warnings included as usual below.

Thank you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Death, Infertility, and Sexual violence

sexpest's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is one of the best books I have read. I love short stories that still somehow intertwine and Gay does an incredible job incorporating similar threads through each piece while still keeping each story an individual piece of intense storytelling. It's important that each chapter is no more than 20 pages due to the intensity of each story. To be so descriptive, and heart-wrenching, while still being concise is an incredible feat that Gay conquers incredibly well. Be aware that there are lots of talks of child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and overall violence towards women. There are also talks of child deaths and difficult pregnancies with the loss of children, as well as gorey descriptions of hunting animals. Never once have these triggering topics felt out of place though - they all serve a large purpose in the stories being told which I appreciate deeply. The writing style reminds me a lot of Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties, which is another book I rated 5/5 stars. Love this author immensely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Self harm, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

river23's review

challenging dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Miscarriage, Infertility, and Pregnancy

loverofeels's review

dark

5.0

absolutely devastating

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Child death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Stalking, Infertility, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Infidelity

dernichtraucherin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

siobhanward's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

3.0

 Like all short story collections, some stories were better than others. As is Gay's typical fashion, a lot of them were hard to swallow and told sad stories. Definitely heed the trigger warnings for this one, there is a lot of heavy content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, and Car accident

Moderate: Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Infertility, Pregnancy, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Fatphobia and Medical content

gertrudski's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Violence, Grief, Racism, Child abuse, and Child death

angelbabe_cj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The book overall and the writing is excellent. It is also very intense. One you might decide to dip in and out of rather than read back to back. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Child death, Rape, Infertility, Car accident, Sexual content, and Racism

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Car accident, Classism, Gore, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Death, and Gun violence

Not all warnings apply to all stories in the collection. I've done my best below to list what is included in each story. I did make notes as I read but I know I missed some things.

I will follow you: pedophilia, sexual abuse, confinement, panic attacks/disorders Water, All its weight: child abandonment The Mark of Cain: pregnancy, infidelity, child abuse, sexual violence Difficult women: sexism FLORIDA: eating disorders, sexual content, racism, classism La Negra Blanca: sexual content, stalking, explicit rape, violence, racism, racial slurs Baby Arm: sex, violence How: brief violence, alcoholism Requiem for a Glass Heart: sexual content, infidelity, stalking? body horror? In the Event of my Father's Death: sexual content, infidelity Break all the way down: child abandonment, explicit child death, car accident, grief, infidelity, physical violence, sexual violence Bad priest: sexual content, religious trauma Open marriage: sexism, toxic relationship? A pat: classism, Best Features: fatphobia (some internalised), sexual content Bone Density: sexual content, infidelity I am a knife: blood, guns, animal death, miscarriage, birth, medical trauma, pregnancy, alcohol, car accident, gore The Sacrifice of Darkness: suicide, death, bullying, death of parent Noble Things: war, injury, medical content, gaslighting?, sexual content, toxic familial relationship Strange Gods: explicit rape, explicit child loss, sexism, racism, medical trauma, blood, hunting/guns, misogyny, infertility?, gaslighting

megmoore123's review

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence