Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn

2 reviews

mfrisk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

This book was like nothing I’ve ever read before. I want to strongly encourage folks to check the content warnings prior to delving into this book but once you’ve done that if you’re at a place where you feel you can read this book I’d highly recommend it. 

This book follows several men who’ve been raped by an unknown woman and we’re following them as they work to pick up the pieces within their lives and regain some sense of normalcy or something new. We follow them through journal entries, internet searches, online chats, and media reactions and they all come together to make a rich story that is able to delve into difficult topics including sexual assault and rape as it relates to racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, toxic masculinity, media coverage and our criminal justice system. 

This was an incredibly difficult read but I’m so glad I read it and I can tell I’ll be thinking about the questions it raised for years to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Violence, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Abandonment

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Well, I was looking for a change of pace and I think I got it.  The topic itself is hard to read about, hard to talk about, etc.

The writing was quite well done, kind of a bit of mixed media with the journal entries, chat logs, transcripts, poetry, and radio show vibes.  The first three victims were well fleshed out and their trauma was ever present and horrifying.  The later ones felt more superficial though I'm not really sure why.  There were also quite a few questions that were raised in the plot that were never answered that made it feel a bit rushed.

I do think this is a good book that has a lot of value in representing sexual assault as a whole and especially in male victims.  However, with all that in mind, I don't feel like I was the intended audience because I don't generally like to read books about rape.  I suppose I didn't expect it to be quite so graphic about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Body horror, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, and Alcohol