Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

12 reviews

cecilialau_'s review against another edition

4.5

This was defo a page-turner for me. I was pretty much fully immersed in the story.
I think the author is very accomplished in getting the characters to act/interact/react authentically (however disturbing or sad it might be for the reader). Quite a lot of deeply disturbing/tragic occurrences making it a very tough read at times. There’s a point where I wanted to fight one of the characters… I was beyond fuming.

The weakness of the dad was hard to read. The girls had a lot going against them from the start. Many of the things that happened (outside of the most heinous ones done by Conrad which made me f-ing fuming) made me want to cry for them.
Anna was a favourite. Eleanor is definitely a flawed character - sometimes you know what explains her behaviour but it was also clear that she didn’t want the responsibility of making the choice between the two. But it is almost impossible when you have a love for both, I do recognise that. Not sure how I felt about the ending bc she could easily change her mind from one moment to the next. Which was so heartbreaking for Jonas to keep having to relive. I do, though, like that she was self-aware most of the time e.g. in how her blaming Jonas (unfairly but understandably immaturely) was their downfall after the drowning - but Jonas was 14 at the time for goodness sake … 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Child death, Terminal illness, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Death

avelavalamp's review against another edition

This book is about WASPs, but the author made casually racist choices in her descriptions of non-WASP characters. She lost me when she said “the Puerto Rican girls eyefuck me.” Why say this about nameless characters in a health clinic and only appear in three lines? Why use this extremely harsh language when

the narrator’s stepbrother is ACTUALLY molesting and raping her or when the childhood friend she loves ACTUALLY does want to f*ck her and she wants him to?! The term “eyefuck” would’ve been appropriate in both scenarios, and yet it’s never used—it’s reserved for the Puerto Rican girls seeking reproductive care—to make them seem “scary” for no reason

?! Add to that using terms like “crackhead” to describe an actual human, women consistently insulting one another with “don’t be such a cow” (fatphobic) and mid-book randomly assigning Jewish identity to the main family with no development? Microagressions abound. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Child death, Sexual violence, Stalking, Incest, and Sexual assault

sweetchocolatez's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Infidelity, Grief, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Incest, Fatphobia, Death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Murder, Misogyny, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Cancer and Chronic illness

Minor: Abortion and Adult/minor relationship

lindsayhotrod's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Infidelity, Incest, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Child death, and Classism

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Dementia, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Body shaming

thiscrowdedshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death and Fatphobia

camillebergeron's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal death, Grief, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Medical trauma, Stalking, Child abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Infertility, Cancer, and Death

Minor: Fatphobia and Medical content

bettysabetty's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Minor: Child death

ciaracullen's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

ribbitingreads's review against another edition

3.0

 This book has so many trigger warnings:

cheating, struggling w/ conceiving children, suicide, rape, fatshaming/fatphobia, death of a child, death of a baby, cancer, death by drowning, sexual assault, etc.

and left me so frustrated at times, however, I truly loved how raw and conflicted Elle was for majority of the story. We are taken on a journey between the most two important men in her life, her husband and her best friend. We learn how they meet and why each man might be (or not) a right match for her. She is a definitely messy character, but I think part of the charm of this book is the everyone can relate to being at a crossroad of choosing what makes you comfortable or what makes you feel alive. The book has an opening ending (though you can probably infer what her choose was by the end of the book).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Rape, Suicide, Child death, Murder, Cancer, and Sexual assault

beastmomma38's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

This book is not exactly as described. Yes, it's about a woman struggling with her past and what to do about her infidelity with her first love. What I wish I would have known ahead of time is that the first half of the book involves so much talk of past sexual abuse from family members to adults and children. The only thing that kept me going was the wonderful writing style and the hope the explicit sexual  abuse stops, which it does. 
I would have loved to give this book 5 stars but the first half of this book made me so uncomfortable, the best I can do is 3. So if you love family drama, back and forth in time stories, and are not triggered by sexual abuse, definitely give it a shot. But please be warned majority of sexual abuse happens to children of varying ages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Adult/minor relationship