Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Animal by Lisa Taddeo

78 reviews

leonalikesliterature's review against another edition

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

4.5

Deeply enjoyable read.  

I found Joan’s perspective so complicated and though I loathed her sometimes, I also resonated with her. She was complicated and ridiculously flawed but relatable and endearing. I found every side character compelling too and truly believed every relationship depicted. 

In a seemingly contradictory way, the story was so outlandish sometimes it felt satirical or dreamlike but it was also always strangely believable.
I never knew what was going to happen despite how simple the overall story was. This book was a surprisingly delightful mystery and engrossing thriller! 

Ended up disappointed that there wasn’t more man-killing, not gonna lie, but I genuinely loved this book. 
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averysteel's review against another edition

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

4.5

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clementine_lips's review against another edition

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

3.75

It took me a while to get into the book because I wasn’t reading it at the right time for me. I’d read The Guest by Emma Cline and Bunny by Mona Awad right before this one and all 3 have the same type of character: a young(ish) woman who is or was abused and becomes a rag doll for men as a consequence. They don’t seem to have desires other than survival until the book is relatively advanced, which is when I started enjoying all 3. I thought it was written very well, with a lot of gut punching observations. Would recommend if you’re in the right state of mind - in a positive place in life. 
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liltinylatke's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

This is one of the most phenomenal pieces of writing I’ve read in a while. I search endlessly for the perfect book, the perfect style of writing, and I found both in this novel. The story is deeply concerning and strange. Experiencing Joan’s life of pain and trauma alongside her felt arduous. I can see similarities between Lisa Taddeo and Ottessa Moshfegh — the way they write their flawed characters with such specific characteristics and thoughts that are absolutely bizarre to the reader but perfectly normal to the character. Their descriptions of people and the things around them are so specific and entirely unrelatable. This is a hard story to get through, and I can’t wait to read all of Taddeo’s work.
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beetdirt's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

FUCKED. BRILLIANT. 
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jadiedaffodil's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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citybound13's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad 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

2.5

This was the hardest to read book I’ve ever encountered and I’ve read some very gruesome and scary books. Be kind to yourself while reading this.
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awhitson's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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laedyred's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

This is one of the best novels on the effects of generational and sexual trauma I have ever read. This is not a story of redemption or hopeful new beginnings. Joan is an utterly real person, and we see the contradiction and pain living inside her without the fluff of a character built to be a turned-hero. The first half of the book is a stream of consciousness and can drag at times. However, a piece like this is not to entertain. Its goal is not to inform or enlighten. This is an expression of pain taken at face value. Those who have not experienced what Joan describes cannot fully grasp what this text does. Although feminism is a huge motif, the modern interpretation of the "girl boss" is nowhere seen. Joan's rage mimics the violence that builds through oppression and abuse, steering her to act out. She is not a hero, but she is also not an anti-hero. She is a person, she is a woman, she is an expression of those who know.
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yesbethhh92's review against another edition

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

5.0

“All my life, all the men taking what they wanted and leaving when it was over.”

Wow wow wow. This was incredible. 

In Animal, Joan flees New York after witnessing a horrible act of violence. From there we follow her to Los Angeles, where she seeks out a woman named Alice for reasons that are slowly uncovered.

Joan reflects back on her life since childhood, recalling her relationship with her parents and a traumatic experience that affected the rest of her life and dictated all her future relationships with women and men. 

This book is about the entitlement, cruelty and entitlement of men, and how this manifests in women as pain, rage and madness.

I could feel the primal rage growing in me as I read this book, and the tension kept building to an emotional and devastating end. 

Lisa Taddeo is a master with words, and I love the way she created parallels between the stories of the different characters. 

I loved this so so so much. I wasn’t sure about it early on, and took some breaks from it because it’s quite slow in the earlier chapters. But once it gets going, it really gets going, and by the end I was crying.

I highly recommend this but check trigger warnings first as there as some graphic parts. 

“It was my father who had driven my mother mad. But once again, mad is not right. The world had set me up to believe that it was women who went mad. It was simply women's pain that manifested as madness.”
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