Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

9 reviews

mariaologist's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

3.75

The first batch of stories (I think it’s the same characters stretched out over different titles)  are brilliant, empowering, change-provoking. The type of stories I want to dissect and reread. I skipped the SUV stories for personal reasons. The reimagined pandemic takes were fascinating. Some better than others. The writing retreat story nearly put me in a book slump. Almost caused me to DNF. But for Carmen, I continued. Interesting collection of stories. Poignant writing. Would recommend only specific stories. Some stories centered on metaphors that felt like too much of a reach. Hard to compare after reading the gem that is The Dream House. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

mirnda's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Mental illness

Minor: Fatphobia, Gore, Medical content, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, and Sexual assault

esophagus18's review

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

absolutely beautiful depictions of the horrors that are being a woman

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Excrement, Vomit, Mental illness, Sexual content, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Gore, Medical content, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Medical content, Terminal illness, Grief, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Violence, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

bi_n_large's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Mental illness

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Bullying, Rape, Terminal illness, and Body horror

Minor: Violence

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.

---

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

otherworlds's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

An absolutely gorgeous, haunting, and sensual collection of stories giving form to the innerworlds of queer women.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Body horror, and Misogyny

Moderate: Terminal illness, Body shaming, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Rape

blymanor's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

A collection of short stories covering topics such as abuse, boundaries and politics. I loved it, though some stories were better than others. My favourite was the Mothers.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Alcohol, Grief, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, and Terminal illness

Minor: Body horror, Rape, Murder, and Vomit

rotfaced's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm not going to lie-- I was not endeared to this collection right away. It is clear that the author is a very strong writer and her imagery invokes some very visceral pictures, which drew me in utterly... but almost every story revolved around sex, if not as a theme, then as a common denominator between character actions. Characters mourn and have sex. They cry and stick their hands between each others legs. Sex is described as if it is the basic state for couples to fall into, which I suppose it can be. Desire for sex is lost and the guilt is a driving conflict between two characters who continue to watch porn like daytime television. There's even two scenes that nearly mirror each other in two different stories, where the POV character is a voyeur to two others having sex and becomes turned on by it. 

 There is so much sex, entirely too much sex for my comfort level. So, perhaps, it is less of an indictment and more of a compliment that I continued to read these stories regardless of the overt sexual bend to them. 

Most of the stronger stories are later in the book. Some favorites:

I found "Real Women have Bodies" and "Eight Bites" to be especially beautiful and poignant. 
"Especially Heinous" was very unusual, but fun and, I think, spectacularly creative. 
"Difficult at Parties" was beautiful in it's rendition of grief and loss in the face of a traumatic incident. 
Against everything, I did enjoy "Inventory" in the story it told, even if it was through the lens of every sexual partner the POV had ever had. 

Less engaging was, unfortunately, the introductory piece, "The Husband Stitch," which I found to be stuffed too full of conceptual commentary (saying the same thing entirely too many time) and then predictable to boot. "Mothers" started strong, but ended confusing and difficult to follow, even with an elaborate second read. "The Resident," while profound in it's writing, went nowhere fast and fell flat at the end for me, though I enjoyed the journey there. I do appreciate that it was less sexual than some of it's counterparts. 

Overall, a strong 4* read from me. The later stories did a lot to strengthen the collection as a whole, and I came to respect the authors perspective more. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Homophobia

lxndrw's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Sexual content, and Terminal illness