Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family by Rabia Chaudry

5 reviews

alexisgarcia's review

reflective sad medium-paced

first off, please be careful with this book, it depicts eating disorders, fatphobia, weight loss, etc. in a very raw and unfiltered way. if you may struggle with any of these topics, i really wouldn’t recommend that you read this. put yourself first!

with that out of the way, this is inherently a very sad book. there are beautiful and mouthwatering descriptions of food, but the authors perceptions of herself and her body are utterly devastating. not every story needs a happy ending (and this one definitely doesn’t have one), but the author describing that she feels a bit better about her body because she’s not “that fat” is really disheartening. this is someone’s life experiences, so it’s hard to review/say that any of them are wrong or bad. but just keep these things in mind before reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Infertility, Ableism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

raymariereads's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Physical abuse

leweylibrary's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

 This book makes me hungry. It also makes me wish I would've grown up eating not only more diverse foods but also eating healthier foods and learning how to cook. It's wild how even though our lives, families, and cultures are so different we have things in common like enjoying junk food and not being taught how to cook and finding it hard to work out and eat right when there's so much stress and so much going on.

I appreciate that even though she did end the book thinner, it wasn't an unhealthy or preachy kind of thinner. She finally found what made her happy and feel empowered and in control with the caveat that everyone is different and we all want to improve no matter where we're at. I also just really enjoyed learning so much about Pakistani culture and food.

Also how wild that she knows Shaun T?? Why is that something that stood out so vividly to me 😅😂 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Body shaming

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Minor: Colonisation, Pregnancy, Medical content, Islamophobia, and Eating disorder

alittlebitheather's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

I appreciate when an actual fat person talks about what it's like living as a fat person. This book spoke to me as someone who is fat and struggled with their weight their entire life. Rabia Chaudry speaks on a wide range of experiences, from shame eating to realizing she was the biggest person in the room, to that feeling of the waistline of your pants gradually getting tighter, but not being able to stop eating. She also discusses her relationship with food as an immigrant from Pakistan, and how her family's chasing of the American Dream correlated to her weight gain and relationship with food. Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is honest, real, and relatable. If you know a fat person, are a fat person, or love a fat person, read it immediately. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Domestic abuse

kassiereadsbooks's review

funny reflective medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, and Addiction

Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

I didn’t know anything about Rabia Chaudry going into this book (I didn’t listen to Serial and I hadn’t heard of Adnan’s case). I left this book thinking she’s not only extremely funny but also brilliant at what she does, however I feel like I have to leave this review because it’s what I needed before I picked this book up. Chaudry dedicates this book to “all those who have spent their lives being judged — and judging themselves — for their weight, who have struggled between deprivation and depravity, and who deserve like anyone else to live an abundant life full of great food.” I feel my issues with this book are summed up with the direct contrast between that dedication and the final sentence in the book: “But I am and will likely remain, by the standards of many, fat. But that’s okay, because I’m not that fat.” The pros: I loved Chaudry’s narrative voice and her stories of Pakistan. I listened to this on audio and I really loved my reading experience. The cons: I felt this book did not “show us how freeing it is to finally make peace with the body we have” as the inside cover states, but reiterates the stance that the author is finally okay with her “not that fat” body and she has achieved being not that fat through lots and lots of diet and exercise (6 days a week, one “cheat meal”), lots of money spent on personal trainers, as well as two surgeries. Again, I left this book really loving the narration and wanting to know so much more about Chaudry’s work, however the marketing surrounding the book and the some of its stances invited criticism given the nature of the subject matter. TW: uses specific weight numbers, ascribes food with morality, descriptions of binge eating, EDs, and the o-word