Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Piglet

Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Piglet by Lottie Hazell

8 reviews

minimicropup's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? No

5.0

I. Loved. This. But it wasn’t satisfying, the texture was strange, and it left a weird aftertaste…I want more, where can I find more?

Energy: Evasive. Addictive. Vulnerable.

Scene: 🇬🇧 Set in Oxford, UK, in a newly developed neighbourhood

Perspective: We follow a cookbook editor nicknamed Piglet as they settle in with their soon-to-be spouse in the months leading up to their wedding.

🐕 Howls: Moments of ambiguous dialogue where we need to know who is talking, it impacts the story!

🐩 Tail Wags: The writing style. The dialogue (mostly) & characters. The feels and foods. Using ambiguity and withholding as the primary plot device. Piglet being frustratingly horrifying, but loveable. The nuanced juxtaposition of greed and entitlement vs love and fulfilment.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

Half the time I didn’t know what was going on. How does a book that bases everything on ambiguity and withholding not annoy me?

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🎬 Tale-Telling: Dialogue-driven. Mostly show, not tell.

🤓 Reader Role: Invisible, standing in the room, picking up what others are putting down and tying it all together.

🗺️ World-Building: Energy driven. The physical settings are minimal. The ambience comes from the characters interacting with each other and their environment.

🔥 Fuel: What happened to make Piglet feel so differently about her partner and friends leading up to her wedding? Is she ruining her life? Will she go ahead with the wedding? Will she stand up to others? Will she stand up for herself? Should she?

📖 Cred: Open to reader interpretation with sprinklings of everything from hyper-realism to bizarro nonsensical

🚙 Journey: A dream that feels all too real.

Mood Reading Match-Up:

-Backyard barbeque. Sizzling stir fry. Kettle boiling. Knife chopping. Pots and pans. Caramelized onions. Bitter perfume. October breeze. Fall colours, crunching leaves. River water. Food truck rumblings. Tourists in the park. Hamburgers. Seams ripping. Sickening sweetness.

-Ambiguous plot mostly vibes bizarro realism

-Literary should-I-stay-or-should-I-go romantic suspense

Content Heads-Up: Body shaming, fatphobia (character comments). Pregnancy. Vomit. Eating disorder (starvation, restricting food, binging). Betrayal.Unhealthy relationship. Alcohol use.

Rep: Lesbian. Heterosexual. Cisgender. Fat. Same-sex parenting. Ambiguously described characters.

📚 Format: Kobo

🤩 Potential Fav of 2024

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

Content Warnings

rachlincs's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I gulped down this book greedily in just two sittings. The writing was beyond wonderful, the food descriptions were only second to Enid Blyton describing a picnic. The characters felt real, watching the protagonist react to the situation she found herself in was compelling and uncomfortable.

I can see from the reviews that many people are disappointed at not having Kit's indiscretion spelled out. I understand the frustration but I think it works well for the story. The reader is able to imagine what awful secret was shared, wonder about what needed to be said to lead to the outcome, put themselves in the place of Piglet and wonder what would lead them to take the same actions. The lack of revelation allows you to feel the same disappointment as the characters of the book - something you were waiting eagerly for turning out to be unsatisfying.

Content Warnings

dearkatie's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

sxndaze's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

She was going to waste, she feared, she knew, the life she had made spoiling around her, turning to rot.

what a wild ride. an encapsulation of what it feels like for the life you’ve built to spiral out of control. hazell writes with such intent and incorporates food into the story seamlessly. the descriptions are rich and lush and border on gross and nearly too much. you feel like you’re over indulging.

the level of anxiety that is constantly humming in the background is impeccable and consistently rises until it hits its peak. it ties itself with the descriptions of food and i’m obsessed.

spoiler: you’ll never know exactly what kit did to betray piglet. some people would hate that. normally, i wouldn’t be a fan, but i kinda like that here. you can assume it’s infidelity, but you can fill in the blanks with what you think is unforgivable and make it personal. it almost hits harder that way.

a gorgeous debut and i look forward to what hazell writes next.

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another_dahlia's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

f1nnmu's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

A bit of spoilers first:

I really liked that despite the fact that food is obviously a core issue the ending wasn't related to no longer loving to cook, because she really did love to cook, and it isn't phrased like it'ssomething she needs to give up just something she needs to start doing for herself instead of doing it to make other people happier.

Although honestly it did bother me a bit that you don'tactually find out what Kit did. It's silly because the specific thing isn't really the point, but still.

It was honestly a fairly disturbing books. At some parts I couldn't wait to start the next chapter, but other parts did actually make me wildy uncomfortable to the point that I'd rather put it down for the day.

Overall I don't think I would recommend this book to just anyone, but if you like to read stories with a bit of a disturbing theme and aren't sensitive about eating disorders this might be a very enjoyable book for you.

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drmathews777's review

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emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Disclaimer: I am not an English major college graduate - Science for me, I do not look further than what I read in a novel I receive - no deep dives on authors, my reviews are for consumers and not for authors.
I happily received an ARC of Piglet by Lottie Hazell estimated release 02/27/24 (March 2024 on the print).
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Spoiler Review with Trigger Warnings
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I don't feel that this is good for anyone who has any issues with food. Trigger warning for anorexia athletica, binge eating disorder, anyone with an unhealthy relationship with food, and people with poor boundary setting/ poor impulse control.
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Piglet is a melancholy tale of a cookbook editor who is in the throes of a scandal right before her wedding. It's like a mix of the great British bake-off and the full train wreck meltdown of the subject's personal life and love life. Heavy elements of classism and eating disorders.

Many people are describing this as a masterpiece because it's tale of someone who likes to perceive themselves a certain way coming to grips with the truth that their perfectly curated life isn't so perfect. And maybe they themselves aren't the person they think they are when it all falls apart. True vulnerability doesn't come through until its too late and clamming up, eating feelings, isolating herself got Piglet into matrimonial hell.

Page 197-198 choked me up though. The struggled through the daughter father relationship when your child knows about your past indiscretions. I had waited on baited breath on what advice her father would give her. I was swiftly reminded that there was a history of infidelity in the past so he felt some measure of requirement to back up her mother's own decisions to stay and work out out long ago.

I appreciated the self awareness of the pretense and posture of keeping up with the Jones' at this point of the novel.

I found the food element evolving from very descriptive at first to less descriptive of the actual food but more so of the volume of it a subtle way of highlighting the binge eating aspect.

What resonated with me most was page 239, "he was pulling her forward and I had to fight the urge to yank back twist my arm out of his, a child refusing, the beginnings of a tantrum". I felt the exact same with first fiancé years ago. You just want to run as soon as you know it's not right but for some reason you don't ever do it soon enough.

The transition between Piglet and Mrs. Edwards was the fever pitch of the novel. Her brother-in-law shows up for her in a great way towards the end and you can really see the family come together to be in her corner at this point.

It concluded a little abruptly but in a perfect way in my opinion.

Overall a good read. Very melancholic, very reflective on society today. If recommend it to anyone who likes reading slice of life and downward spirals.

Content Warnings

celticthistle's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Glorious dark, disgusting yet funny at same time

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