Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

4 reviews

kimveach's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book resonated with me.  The story of women losing their rights in Iran in the late 1970s due to conservative religious men seems very timely.  The friendship between two young girls who grow into very different women is lovely.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage

story_singer_101's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring slow-paced

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

5.0

 This book is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. The prose was beautiful, the characters were realistic and had nuanced, complicated, and understandable relational dynamics, and hard, traumatic topics were discussed with sensitivity without ever being graphic in their depictions. In addition, this book had one of the best depictions of and conversations about feminism that I’ve seen in a while.

There are several common tropes that I’ve seen in stories revolving around feminism that I find horribly annoying and often offensive:
1) A character’s entire personality and arc is reduced to “I am woman, hear me roar.” Women deserve more interesting and nuanced stories than just that one plot! Do men get all the other plots and we are only allowed to have ones that are about us overcoming the limitations placed on us because of our gender? Isn’t that just making the sexism worse by reducing all women to a single story?

2) Women are portrayed as being victims of a world consisting in its entirety of either brutish and predatory men who view the women as objects and never take responsibility for their actions or clueless and naive men who don’t realize how oppressive they’re being all the time and wont listen when told otherwise (one of the tv shows I’m watching right now has a ridiculous number of men that fit into this second category, so I’m extra salty about it right now 😆).

3) Women are provided with only one option for what it means to be a strong woman—normally some kind of career-minded girlboss—and any woman who chooses to be a stay at home wife or mother is viewed as brainwashed and oppressed. Doesn’t supporting women’s rights and choices mean that women have the right to choose to be a stay at home mom just as much as they have the right to choose to pursue a competitive career? Isn’t telling women they have no choice put to pursue a career just as sexist as saying women have no choice but to be a wife and mother?

This book avoids all three tropes. It depicts both men and women as multi-dimensional characters with complex motivations and inherent human dignity. Women are portrayed as men’s equals in their capacity for greatness and their capacity to make horrible, life-altering mistakes. They’re portrayed as regular, normal people. People who deserve to be treated with the respect and care that comes from all people being equal before God. People who deserve justice for the ways those rights and that inherent dignity and equality have been stripped from them by their fellow human beings. People who have hopes and dreams and who are petty, courageous, and loving just like anyone else.

That’s a feminism I can wholeheartedly support. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

ashleyjean6's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad medium-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? No

4.25

Very good book, but as I anticipated, a difficult read. I loved the writing and character development, the vivid descriptions of food and clothes and setting. It's incredible to read about Iran before the revolutions and to know they're still being controlled by extremists today. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Classism

torturedreadersdept's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism