Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

15 reviews

mmelibertine's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide

queer_bookwyrm's review

challenging dark 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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: Blood, self-harm, suicide mention, abuse, sexual assault mention, sexual content, medical content/trauma disordered eating 

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado is an 8 story horror collection that focuses on women and the monstrous things men and society do to them. It's also about how your own mind can be the villain. 

I have to say, these were some weird stories. They were very creepy and unsettling in a psychological horror kind of way with some body horror thrown in. Most of the stories are either sapphic or bisexual. The first story was my favorite, about a girl with a ribbon around her neck. She had one rule for her partner: never touch the ribbon and never remove it. It's a story about love and trust and consent that ends exactly the way you'd expect. 

Others were more disturbing or confusing. There were a couple of stories that I didn't really get what was happening. Some of the stories felt like I needed more context, more background, which is always my problem with short stories. I always want them to be longer. Machado also capitalizes on her use of the common horror trope of the unreliable female narrator who is out of her mind. The woman in the attic type of thing. 

Machado's prose is stunning and delicious. Definitely pick this up if you are a literary fiction fan or a fan of female horror in general.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Self harm, Sexual content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Eating disorder, Suicide, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

lesserkatie's review

dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide

jialianyang's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A haunting book about queer women. They are from different backgrounds, telling their experiences in various ways. It is like stepping into another's mind over and over. This is a book where you must be ok with being sad, confused, desiring, hurting, haunted, lost. The women are not the side characters here, but they are also not always in control. Disorienting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Suicide, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Bullying, and Vomit

Moderate: Colonisation, Chronic illness, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Rape, and Toxic relationship

yaoipaddle's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

Average rating: 2.6
Read this very spaced out because you may tire of the author's writing style SO FAST. I loved the Husband Stitch when I read it online, so I was excited to read an entire book by the same author. Big mistake. She struggles to end even her most interesting stories well and the sheer amount of sexual content is exhausting when you read the stories back to back.

The Husband Stitch - 5 stars
One of my fave short stories. I had read it twice on its own before finding it in this book.
Every time I read it I have new thoughts on it. All time top story.

Inventory - 4 stars
Very interesting to read after COVID. Short and easy to read.

Mothers - 1 star
Useless. Truly dogshit.

Especially Heinous - 2 stars
IDK if it was supposed to emulate this weird perversion society has with Law & Order SVU. If that was the case it succeeded. It dragged on and the ending was so lame.

Real Women Have Bodies - 3 stars
By this point I was dead tired of the author's writing style. I liked the premise but the ending yet again was a let down.

Eight Bites - 2 stars
I felt nothing about this. The commentary was shallow.

The Resident - 1 star
This took me so long to read because I barely wanted to get through this crap story. I was exhausted by the author's writing style and I found the main character loathsome. I could write a better feminist short story in high school than 'The Resident'.

Difficult at Parties - 3 stars
I will reread this one at a later time. I think it was just OK. I am so tired of the author though that I don't think I could appreciate this story as much as I would on a reread in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Alcohol, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Violence, Cursing, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Suicide, Dysphoria, Sexual harassment, Grief, Sexual assault, Medical content, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Stalking, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

ejd123's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual assault, and Misogyny

nialiversuch's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gore, Body horror, Violence, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Medical content

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Body shaming, Gore, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Body horror, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Pregnancy, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Abandonment, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Bullying, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Suicide, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, and Child abuse

Illness outbreak, epidemic ("Inventory"). Unreality ("Especially Heinous"). Insects ("Eight Bites," "The Resident"). Illness ("The Resident").

dromedaryreader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I loved some of the stories in this book. Others seemed lazy and were too caught up in small details to work as a short story. Eight Bites, Mothers, Difficult At Parties, and The Husband Stitch were my personal favorites. Inventory and The Resident were alright. I was not a fan of Real Women Have Bodies or Especially Heinous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Misogyny, Outing, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Medical content, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Suicide

literary__mary's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This is one of my all time favorite authors! She truly writes like no one else. I highly recommend if you like magical realism, feminism, and lgbtq themes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Sexual assault and Suicide