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Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan

19 reviews

lauraegan's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have never read a book as visceral and heartbreaking as this. Any earlier in my recovery and I couldn't have finished it, yet it still had me grimacing on the bus at my pain and hers. It felt so exposing and gratifying at once to see the feminine experience spelled out like this. The characters motives and mannerisms matched icons of my own life, and I felt shame for finding my own self-hatred in hers. When you're ready to face your relationships with yourself and others this is it, but read with caution as it may bring up some very hard feelings about sex and relationships. Whenever I need a wake up call about how I used to carry myself and still sometimes do this book is where I will always return.
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thesawyerbean's review against another edition

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

5.0

Wow, this was incredible. The writing was so raw, vulnerable and personal, and yet utterly intoxicating. 

The book centred on the whirlwind ‘romance’ between the narrator and Ciaran, laying bare the destructive force of obsessive love on the self. The narrator’s point of view, despite being unnamed, was so intimate that you felt everything that she went through. 

Interweaved with the affecting prose was nuanced and edifying commentary on sex, gender, consent, power and patriarchy, the male gaze and the violence of sex. The flash-forwards to 2019 Athens were rich and clear in these perspectives, providing a stunning contrast to the dizziness of the narrator’s thoughts and experiences in the main timeline. 

Overall, a staggering and important debut which left me stewing in thought for a while after.
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savvylit's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Complicated
  • Loveable characters? Complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The narrator of Acts of Desperation is one of the most self-hating and self-destructive characters that I have encountered in fiction. The central relationship in this book is so toxic that I found it painful to experience as a reader. However, Megan Nolan manages to make this deeply depressing story stay compelling and all-too-real throughout. 

Another testament to Nolan's talent is how easy I found it to empathize with her narrator's acts of desperation - despite being simultaneously devastated by them. Ultimately, I normally love a dark book but maybe this was too realistically dark for me. Check the content warnings before reading.
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kelleykamanda's review against another edition

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

4.0

This is a painful read. It follows a character in an abusive relationship. The needing, longing, self destructive feelings are some that many people could relate to. The character finds herself watching what she's doing from outside her body, wondering why she is accepting this horrible pain... and then convinces herself that she must accept this "love" as it is all she is worth. I especially connected to the character's constant need for validation, especially from those who are hurting her the most. 

All in all, an exceptional read. Painful and sad, but truly brilliant. Put into words the experiences that many of us sadly go through. 
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sib_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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rkpitch1234's review against another edition

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sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

it was interesting an interesting look into toxic and violent relationships.

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amina_el's review against another edition

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

4.0

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skyealexandra's review against another edition

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

4.0

one of those books that i absolutely adored but never want to reread 
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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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

5.0

This book...oh, my God. She's short, but she packs a fucking punch. "Acts of Desperation" follows an unnamed narrator who on the first page meets a man and falls into a "brief, all-consuming" romance with him before he abruptly dumps her. She resolves to get him back and keep him by any means necessary, even if it means degrading and destroying herself.

The writing in this book is so beautiful and harsh at the same time. I highlighted so much in this book, such a range of lines: lines that I related to, lines that I thought were interesting, lines that made this character make sense to me (because she often did not, which made her seem painfully real).

Through this narrator's voice, the reader is exposed to her confessional, her literal desperation for male attention and male love, her love addiction, her mental illness. The way at times, this man she claimed to love so fully did not even seem like someone she liked, and yet she simply couldn't be without him- without *someone* in general - God. You have a front row seat to all of it and it is sometimes so brutal that one must set the book down and just decompress.

However, in the brutality of this narrative, there are moments so poignant and relatable that I couldn't get my highlighter/pen cap off fast enough to highlight or annotate. There were parts of this that also felt too smart for me, things that didn't and do not make sense to me still, and I don't know if that's because I'm not smart enough or if it's just a reflection of what a mess this character is?

Overall, obviously, I loved this. I loved the commentary and chronicling of this woman's case of love addiction & other things throughout that I won't mention at the risk of giving things away inadvertently.
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