Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Her Body and Other Parties

Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

72 reviews

its_madi's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Loveable characters? No

0.25

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loujanae's review

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dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

This is so fucking fabulous. The first story starts with all I could have ever asked for, ever wanted. 'The Husband Stitch' is my favorite short story I've ever read. 'Inventory' was another stand out for me. Carmen Maria Machado plays with format and style phenomenally. It's my favorite part of short fiction. Playing with the way we tell a story. Stories about storytelling. Goddamn I loved this.

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lexihworth's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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the_harlequin's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

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asielmarie's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

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yaoipaddle's review

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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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thegoblinempress's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

2.0

I've been meaning to read this collection for years, ever since it was released and praised so widely, and I was certain it was a collection I was going to enjoy. Sadly, this wasn't for me.

Reading Her Body and Other Parties feels like watching the news. I've come out of this collection feeling glum and underwhelmed, and to be honest if glum's what Machado's going for then she's achieved what she set out to do. I'm getting tired of books described as 'feminist [insert genre here]' being so damn bleak, though.

There's no denying that Machado is a talented writer and she's a writer I will definitely try again in future as I have a feeling In the Dream House will be more up my street than this book ended up being, but even the stories I enjoyed were so depressing. I think my favourite was the first story in the collection, "The Husband Stitch," simply because it's the one story I'm 100% sure I understood. Honestly I could just be an idiot who hasn't got what the stories in this collection were trying to do, but sometimes I don't want them to do anything--sometimes I just want a story, and so often these stories ended in such a way that I didn't feel any kind of resolution.

It doesn't help that Machado's writing style leads us to spend our time with characters who feel pretty held at a distance throughout the collection, so not only are these stories often a bit of a bummer but I didn't feel as though I got to know any of the women particularly well either.

I would also have to agree that the longest story in the collection essentially being a bizarre piece of Law & Order: SVU fanfiction was such a strange choice. Though weirdly it's a story I'm more likely to remember than some of the others.

There's not much else to say aside from that Her Body and Other Parties bummed me out. Don't get me wrong I wasn't expecting happy stories at all, but when I hear a collection described as feminist I'm hoping for stories that aren't about women being and remaining miserable.

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