Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

19 reviews

seawarrior's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

Real Life is a heavy, honest coming of age story that focuses on graduate student Wallace, as he realizes the depths of his discontent over the course of a weekend. Wallace is the only Black graduate student in his program, an alienating experience which is made worse by acts of sabotage, statements of thinly veiled racism, and silence from his white peers. Taylor pulls no punches while describing how Wallace feels, and unravels why he is compelled to either placate or push away those he calls his friends as the story goes on. This book contains effective but visceral descriptions of trauma and how it pecks its way into people and slumbers within them, poisoning them quietly for a spell before squawking loudly for attention. If you are triggered by descriptions of sexual assault, especially against minors, this is not a book I would ever recommend to you. Yet I never felt like Taylor exploited Wallace's history of surviving assault to elicit shock or pity from the reader. Instead we are led to understand, similarly to Wallace, that his history cannot be escaped, and that his flee to academia has piled on new violations hidden under politeness and guilty apologies while exacerbating his poor self-esteem. Taylor makes it impossible not to empathize with Wallace, and I desperately wished for him to find safety and happiness somewhere in his world. The ending of the book was disappointing to me because Wallace's life did not improve, but I don't regret having read it. Taylor's prose is striking and glittering with insight, so I would still highly recommend this book to those who can stomach the subject matter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Homophobia, Animal death, Classism, and Death of parent

suncreems's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, and Child abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Death of parent, and Eating disorder

Minor: Violence, Fatphobia, Vomit, Grief, Racial slurs, and Body shaming

shreyshrey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Nails a really specific feeling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

jen_again's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

Minor: Animal death and Body shaming

biblizo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, and Toxic relationship

oliverlang's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.0

I'm not sure what I expected from this book to begin with but as it went on I found myself compelled to read more in the hopes that the resolutions I wanted from it would come to fruition.

There's a lot of friend group drama going on throughout this book with a lot of dark/serious themes. 

I feel like I wanted this book to be more than it was. It had the opportunity to provide strong character development and show a bisexual identity and it just didn't give me that. 

Although the book only documents the events over one weekend, the ending felt unfinished and the final chapter came out of the blue with a flash back to the friends meeting for the first time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Grief, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

mikkiarose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent and Body shaming

abswoods's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Vomit, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Medical content, Homophobia, Eating disorder, and Body shaming

lexi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

This was very well written, and is also very real (as the title claims), but also very depressing. The ending kind of felt like getting punched.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Grief, Addiction, Body shaming, and Homophobia