Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn

5 reviews

nicmay's review against another edition

2.75

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Classism

themaple_dusk's review against another edition

2.5

challenging medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

This book wasn't terrible, but I personally don't think feel satisfied. I felt like Nick suddenly made a 180 at one point in the book. I also can’t easily deal with unlikability in characters which probably affected my experience.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Alcohol, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Sexual content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Classism

Verbal abuse (graphic), Underage drinking (graphic), Abusive romantic relationship (graphic), Relationship violence (graphic), Sexual abuse (minor)

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

💬:“I’ve been trying to breathe underwater too long. It’s time to get some fresh air into my lungs."

Flinn, Alex. Breathing Underwater (p. 189). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: fiction, teens, young adult, abuse, romance

📚Page Count: 229

🎧Audiobook Length: 5hrs 09mins

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5

TW -

alcohol, body shaming, bullying, injury details, misogyny, fat shaming, abuse, domestic partner abuse, relationship abuse, child abuse, murder/suicide

Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn is a young adult novel about an abusive relationship that two high schoolers are in, this book is from the perspective of

the abuser.

This book was first published in 2001, I read this in 2002 at the age of 12. I don't think 12 years old is old enough for this book, I definitely think this book is for older teens/young adults. I will say that I did learn a lot from this book as a pre-teen, I learned what an abusive relationship could possibly look like and that helped me in the long run. 

This book would be really helpful for young males in particular, because this story is from the point of view of a young male teen. Some of the readers might see themselves in the main character Nick, or even in his girlfriend Caitlin. It's possible that they might see themselves in Nick's best friend, Tom. There are so many possibilities for how this story could connect to older teens/adult readers.

One of my big issues with this story is that

Nick learns that HE was abusive through journaling, counseling, but mostly the murder/suicide of his friend Leo and Leo's girlfriend, Neysa (two Latine characters). I don't like how Neysa was killed off just for Nick to learn his lesson. Nick even says after he finds out that they're dead that he can't even remember what Neysa looked like, she was just a stand in for Caitlin.

"Neysa. What did she look like, even? But I see Caitlin’s face, Caitlin’s blue eyes, staring."

Flinn, Alex. Breathing Underwater (p. 177). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.  

 Overall, I think the story was solid in it's depiction of abusive relationships, abusive behaviors, and child abuse. I'm going to give this 4 out of 5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I listened to this audiobook for free on Libbyapp.com

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

regalreads's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Pregnancy

harleighc's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

If I’m being honest, this is an incredibly written book. It’s just not very loveable. The way Finn paired the journal entries and the book itself kept you hooked and was just very cleverly done.
This is just a tough read to really truly enjoy because it is so dark and the characters are easy to hate.

I did feel like the ending could have been built up more and we shouldn’t have  sympathized with the abuser so quickly ,

but that’s probably my only complaint. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cursing, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol