Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

66 reviews

hippiequeen's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I think the reading is worth for the “Especially Heinous” short story, which is the one that impressed me the most, especially for the choice of narrating through episodes summaries of a tv show. That story was brilliant, but unfortunately I found the rest of them quite boring. Maybe it’s because I am not that into fantasy / dystopia books, but I did love her memoir and her writing style is always good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Rape, Violence, Vomit, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

dearbhlanoonan's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Violence

emilymbrown's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense 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

4.75

Absolutely jarring. Not what I was expecting at all but I fell so attached the moment I read the first page. Beautiful and scary and confusing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

maddielinehan's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

ahhh the innate horror of the female experience- carmen gets it

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

breeoxd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

Terribly dark, twisted, funny, tragic uncategorizable collection of gothic short stories. Carmen dives into all the ways violence is visited on women- emotional, physical, societal, intimate, large-scale. She turns the world upside down, inside out and back again. You find yourself almost laughing, then hugging yourself  as you realize how accurate some of these parodies are. I don't even know if calling them parodies is right? Anyway. Read it. Sit with the discomfort. You'll be better for it. Can't wait for more from this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

There should be a GIANT trigger warning on this book, but it is beautiful.

miamcmillan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

i’m not entirely convinced i like this book but it is incredibly Present in my thoughts and my friend pearl said this provocativeness was conducive to a piece of art and i think they’re completely right. some of the stories made an overwhelming impression on me and some i can barely remember but it was an out of body experience reading this book and i felt almost separate from myself. some thoughts i had while talking about it with pearl because i think they are the best way of describing how i feel: 
- it feels so overwhelmingly 21st century to me and i feel that’s not what the author was going for so in a way i feel guilty for not interpreting it like the artist but then stupid for that because art is supposed to be interpreted by the onlooker but then it makes me wonder whether actually she intended for us to have a collective reaction after all and she’s just a genius at creating it im not sure 
- the resident has affected me so deeply i think the line that’s sticking with me is when one of them calls the speaker ethereal because to me she felt almost cumbersome but not in a bad way. it was eerie and beautiful and i cannot get it out of my head 
- i keep thinking about how some of the stories were so obvious and some were absolutely incomprehensible (to me)
- especially heinous felt like a mixture of both to me. like it confused me as a concept but it was also weirdly addictive and beautifully done and i keep coming back to it. the almost positive ending felt disjointed in the context of the collection but it was even more strikingly hopeful because of that. i also like associated it so strongly with b99 in this like hazy summer soup of just gotham city energy that it almost removed any law and order intention or themes around it and it was so interesting to see how it affected me in a way i’m not sure it was supposed to (but then again maybe it was). maybe because the city was breathing and bleeding and heart beating so much i felt connected to it (in a way it reminded me absolutely unintentionally of the weird evocative mess of new york and the contrast with the version i read of it in detransition baby)
- real women have bodies had a line about fingers being tied into grommets which was intensely unnerving 
essentially i don’t think i liked the experience of reading it at all but i also liked it for making me uncomfortable. i think some stories personally will stick with me more than others and some i will probably forget. i think overall it is very much worth reading just to see what resonates and what doesn’t. a very interesting and subversive debut <3  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder

raynaaskiverr's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Violence

jmq23's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I think a lot of the themes kind of went over my head when i read it. I’m going to have to give it a more in depth read and i’ll probably also have to annotate it too in order to understand. but i loved it, it was meaningful and relatable and the prose was amazing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

ejr1904's review against another edition

dark funny tense slow-paced

3.25

It was hit and miss. 

I wanted so desperately to fall in love with all of these tales, but only a couple of them resonated. The Inventory was sensational and the ribbon was a really fascinating modernized version of urban legend. It was dark and nostalgic. 

I felt like the SVU story missed the mark. It was long, over imagined, and was difficult to track. I was most excited for that, but I was neither moved by the meaning nor the prose. 

Her writing is impactful and the subject matter is crucial, I was just left with wanting a bit more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

gm_vak's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol