Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Brutes by Dizz Tate

4 reviews

savvylit's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

4.0

The collective perspective? Impeccable. The Central Florida setting as character? Humid and palpable. The mysteriousness and obsession? Realistic.

Brutes is a delightful book that is thematically and structurally in conversation with Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides. Teen girls are the central obsession. Readers are only allowed to get to know said girls as far as what is witnessed directly by a group of younger kids in the neighborhood; in Brutes' case, the collective witnesses are also girls themselves.

The only reason this novel isn't five stars for me is that I felt like some of the mysterious elements of this story needed to be better developed. Just when something creepy would happen or begin to happen, there was a jump in scenery. I just wanted fewer loose threads by the time I finished Brutes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

orlagal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Excrement, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Classism, Death, Racism, Sexual assault, Vomit, Alcohol, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Stalking, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

flavi's review

mysterious reflective slow-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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Blood, Cursing, Mental illness, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

rionstorm's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I don't know if I loved this book, but I flew through it because I couldn't look away, like when you see a car crash or something really gross. 

The plot is hard to follow and each new thread that seems like it will be the new main direction inevitably gets abandoned for whatever the characters are more fixated on at that moment, with a fickleness that is thematically appropriate. That being said, the author probably introduced more elements than she could realisticslly or satisfyingly pull off. 

The two main characters, in my opinion, are the setting of Florida and the amalgamation/superorganism that is The Girls. The sensory descriptions are delicious and disgusting, and the sense of place is overpowering. This feels like a horror about being a teenage girl - everything is grubby and decorated and fascinating and boring and pointless and achingly intensely meaningful. The characters are fixated on being seen and chosen, with the two possible outcomes (achieving this or not) both anticipated as equally nightmarish. 

The tension between their vulnerability, longing for tenderness, cruelty, and disgust at any softness or kindness feels sharply accurate to the experience of teenage girlhood - particularly the teenage girlhood of children who have been profoundly traumatised but don't have any way to confront or desk with that reality. The way that the narrators dance around their traumas without making direct eye contact with it, both as an unconscious survival mechanism and as a conscious denial, put words on an experience I'd seen play out among my peers as a teenager, but never identified. 

Overall I found this book interesting, if confusing, and enjoyed the uneasy atmosphere it created. Reccomend to people who love gross, cruel, painful, conflicting portrayals of girlhood, to people who love descriptions of rot and bugs and swamps, and to fans of Ethel Cain. Do not reccomend to people who want a solid plot or any conclusions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror