Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

22 reviews

chinomi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Hate crime, Body shaming, and Death of parent

azaline's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Body shaming, and Sexual content

thursdd4y's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative 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? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Gore, Car accident, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Dementia, Grief, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Murder, and Violence

itsmelaurenc's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Incest, Racial slurs, Car accident, Child death, Infertility, Death of parent, Outing, Racism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, War, Death, Deportation, Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, and Body shaming

_maia3_'s review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense 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

2.0

If you're looking for a graceful, reflective handling of intersex people and issues, never touch this book. Intersex people have said what I'm about to say better and in more detail if you're interested, but in short, this book seems deadset on painting intersexuality as some kind of monstrous deformation, and it is not lighthanded in this treatment either (for example, the main character's intersexuality is a direct consequence of incest). Furthermore, for a book all about living inbetween categories, it absolutely refuses to look at gender as anything other than binary. I didn't find out until after reading that Eugenides refused to research anything about intersex people for "authenticity" (!?). Its a real pity, because the first half of the novel speaks very poignantly about the experience of immigration and growing up an immigrant, and the prose (whilst sometimes a little overworked and cringey) works in its favour most of the time.
If it's possible for you to only read the first half of the book and then return it to your local library once the main character gets born, that would be ideal.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Genocide, Racism, Transphobia, Medical content, War, Body shaming, and Fire/Fire injury

kibiiiariii's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective 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? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Classism, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, War, Abandonment, Car accident, Death, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Sexism, Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Genocide, Grief, Infertility, Islamophobia, and Pregnancy

bootsmom3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad slow-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexism, Body shaming, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Death, Incest, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Dementia and Grief

lief_'s review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Incest, Sexual assault, Deadnaming, and Dementia

Moderate: Racism, Transphobia, Gun violence, and Body shaming

Minor: Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Outing

applesaucecreachur's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

There was a lot wrong with this book. (Though to be fair, I went in thinking that this was non-fiction, an autobiography by an intersex person, and realized with horror only later that it was fiction.) The storytelling style spanned three generations and was therefore unique, and the author clearly has a strong grasp of descriptive prose and timelines. And maybe, maybe, this was a progressive and gender-inclusive book for its time. But my commendations end there. From beginning to end, this book was full of racial stereotypes (particularly anti-Black) and racist accents if listening to the audiobook, one-sided takes on historical events, and incest. Fucking incest. Perhaps the author was not condoning procreation with one's full-blooded biological sibling, but was going into such detail necessary? Regardless of intent, this signaled that aside from being taboo on its own, being intersex is also the result of taboos, a mutation in chromosomes occurring out of inbreeding. 
I'm giving it 2 stars because I liked some of the writing. The writer displays good technique here. I'm taking away 3 because of the contents and everything else about it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Incest

Moderate: Car accident, Deadnaming, Cultural appropriation, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Dementia, and Sexual content

Minor: Fatphobia

mpswans1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative lighthearted reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Medical trauma, Genocide, Dysphoria, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Grief, War, and Death of parent

Minor: Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Body shaming, and Drug use