Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

9 reviews

feralbookwife's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.75

Haunting in every way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Blood

lanternheart's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Bullying

Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, and Gore

kiddocut's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Fantastic quick read about a boiling family drama, framed in a setting that calls back to class, gender and academic background-and how that affects our ability to interpret  the world both in a literal and emotional sense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Classism, Child abuse, Sexism, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Bullying, Body shaming, Racism, Blood, Torture, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Sexual content, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Cultural appropriation

There is a use of a slide one time-to describe a character’s inability or stubbornness to adapt his language to modern terminology in a historical context. I didn’t anticipate it and I wish there was someone who mentioned it. It’s a story heavily about a fractured and demanding father whose daughter is just discovering herself. It is well written and I think all TW that I applied are accurate.

greenwillow77's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

Sarah Moss is particularly concerned with how the echoes of the past are heard in the now, & this book is an excellent illustration of how she goes about making that into a compelling story. Creating a creeping sense of unease & ratcheting tension that wouldn’t be out of place in an Ari Aster film, the story of Sil & the experimental archeology project rattles along at a brisk lick, simmering in the summer heat & Sil’s father’s temper. 

There is plenty to unpack in this book- class, education, gender roles, family, teenage anxiety, the power structures of abuse- & it crams in to a story told in under 150 pages. I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed this book, but it did compel me to finish & it will stay with me for a while yet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, and Classism

odrib's review against another edition

dark informative sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, and Animal death

Minor: Racism and Body shaming

decembermagpie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcohol

caitlynleahy's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Ghost Wall is a short novella about Silvie, her parents, three archeology students, and their professor as they partake in a two week historical reenactment of England's Iron Ages. It's heavy, with a large portion of the book focusing on Silvie's abusive father. 
Stylistically, it feels like reading Silvie's diary or being inside her thoughts. The lack of quotation marks for dialogue feels confusing at first but as the book progresses, it gets easier to determine who is speaking. 
I will say that the ending felt rushed, and like it would benefit from five or so pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, and Cursing

neni's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 Interesting narrative style. The continuous (almost stream of consciousness) narration kinda reminded me of José Saramago’s writing style, because it doesn’t use any paragraph breaks or punctuation other than commas and periods. Although it did make my understanding of the story sometimes a little more complicated (especially in the dialogue bits, where I had trouble figuring out who exactly was talking), I think it was a great choice for this type of story. The author did an amazing job in completely immersing the reader in the story, and the non stop narration as well as the fact we were in the main character’s head the whole time (which came with the full set of her trauma induced biases) served to create a tense, unsettling, borderline claustrophobic feeling that fit the themes and the mood of the story perfectly. That said, this isn’t the type of fun, engaging read to let go for a while, it comes with a load of trigger warnings and the whole thing is about dark and disturbing themes. 

I can’t say I “enjoyed” this because it was honestly kind of disturbing, but it was definitely an interesting reading experience and the author is clearly very talented. I simply cannot give more than 4 stars to something that so disturbed me, but that’s not a fault of the book itself, just a personal preference/subjective reading experience thing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexism, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Body shaming and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Abandonment

slantrhymes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Animal death

Moderate: Body shaming, Misogyny, Racism, Torture, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcohol and Blood