Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

15 reviews

micksland's review

dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

2 stars

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. I have a very high tolerance for darkness and violence in literature, with the caveat that the subject must be handled reasonably well. If an author is going to write a novel set in 21st century New York City, I do expect some modern sensibilities from my characters.

SPOILERS for the first 1/3 of the novel (I won't spoil the ending, though).

Emma Valentine, wife of the protagonist Apollo Kagwa, suffers from postpartum depression after the birth of her child. In a violent rage, she breaks Apollo's jaw with a hammer and disappears. He spends weeks in the hospital undergoing reconstructive surgery. Later in the novel, he seems to forget all about this incident and forgives her without ever mentioning it.

Can you imagine the critics' reactions if the genders had been reversed? What is going on here? (And that's not even getting into the novel's treatment of postpartum depression, which I also found to be pretty lacking)

Despite the fact that there IS an engaging plot and a mystery to solve here, I could never get past the fact that this horrific episode of violence was just dropped by the narrative, never to be examined critically or spoken of by the characters again. This is a massive miss by the author in what could have otherwise been a very emotionally charged story, had the material been handled in a more subtle or realistic way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Child abuse

Moderate: Racism

bluecanarylite's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Pregnancy

Minor: Domestic abuse and Racism

jennshelfishlife's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, and Domestic abuse

jaqxun's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Child death, Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Cursing, Blood, Death, Torture, Gun violence, and Murder

jess4276's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was incredibly slow and there was so much that wasn't resolved or explained. I couldn't wait for it to end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Violence

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse, Racism, Cursing, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

stephanielee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

When I read this book, I thought it was going to be about a father looking for his son in the woods. It is that but it is so much more. There are a lot of content warnings but they are not always as they seem. This is the story of Apollo and his wife Emma. They are in love and living in NYC and start a family. Things seem perfect until one day everything seems to change. Then there are some really awful and freaky things that happen. Now Apollo is searching for Emma and trying to understand what happened. He uncovers some strange things that seem too fantastical to be real but what if it were? I feel like this is a blend of real life and some mystical/magical stuff that doesn't start to make a ton of sense until you are almost to the end. It is worth the wait as you find some of the horrors you thought to be true are actually quite different. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Animal death

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

I really liked this book. The writing is really charming (which feels weird to say with this type of content) and the fairy tale atmosphere worked really well for the most part. New York and its history were well utilized. There is one plot point in the middle of the book that I thought was kind of silly

(the part at Rikers - considering later discussions that was all absurdly easy and felt kind of pointless)

but overall fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Child death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Kidnapping, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, Stalking, Abandonment, Death, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm, Alcohol, Confinement, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Police brutality

quabbityash's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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: Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Child death

dckathleen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.5

So many CW: child death, abuse, domestic violence. 

I did finish it, but found it to be too long and kind of frustrating. There were too many weird elements. I get whet the overall goal was, but it felt disjointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Gore, and Child death

finchthearcher's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Murder, and Stalking

Minor: Domestic abuse and Abandonment