Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

10 reviews

leahthebooklover's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.0

  I really wanted to like this book. I really expected to like this book. I sorta liked this book. The set up was intriguing - it's about a girl who from her 19th birthday (which happens to be on New Year's Day) onward lives her life out of chronological order. She never knows which year she will "leap" to or what age she will be. She retains her memories from the years she has lived, but they're often out of context so it's almost like having amnesia. Her first leap is from age 19 to age 51, and she has no idea of what has happened to her in the in between years. There is only one constant in her life - her mother, Madeline. From Madeline's (and everyone else's) perspective, Oona ages "normally", at least on the outside. But on the inside, Oona feels her age, mentally, in terms of the number of years she has personally experienced. So when she makes her first leap, she looks 51, and the people around her perceive her that way, but inside she feels like she should have just turned 19, and has only the wisdom of her previous 18 years to guide her. And so it goes. We follow her through 8 leaps, where on the outside she appears anywhere from 19 to 53 years old, but inside, she's lived chronologically less than 30 years. Brilliant premise, right?

  Here's the problem, though. Yes, Oona is young. Young people often make poor decisions. But you would think her situation would teach her some caution. Nu-uh. She continually makes rash, self-centered decisions that wreak havoc in her life and the lives of the people around her. She treats her mother, the one person who consistently shows up in every leap and shares the secret of her mixed up reality, like the enemy. She never listens to her. She never listens to anyone, not even herself. The incarnation of herself who lived through the previous calendar year tries to leave notes with advice or at least some slivers of information for her to help her in the year ahead, but Oona either loses the notes or totally disregards them. I have some problems with those notes, and for that matter, with Oona's mother. First, the notes: why does she always wait until the last minute to write to herself? She's caught scrambling about what to say. After her first couple of leaps I would think she would be more intentional about the information she passes on, maybe even say something that is actually helpful. Second: her mother. I don't get the whole "no spoilers" mentality. She could be more helpful, IMHO, but then again, she's dealing with Oona, who is going to do what she wants to do anyway, consequences be damned. 

  In general, while the concept of this book was compelling, the execution of it was fraught with problems. I kept hoping Oona would wise up, and perhaps in the last minute or so of the book she was beginning to. Hard to say. There were a lot of years we didn't hear anything about, I really hope in those silent years she did (does) redeem herself.

  TW: in one of her leaps there is significant drug use. There are a couple of spicy sex scenes.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Drug use, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Fatphobia

litliz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Death of parent, Vomit, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Body horror, Dysphoria, Cancer, Alcohol, Car accident, Cursing, Gaslighting, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Addiction, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Homophobia, and Sexual harassment

sgenna's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, and Death

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Car accident, Death of parent, Transphobia, Drug use, Grief, Sexual content, Drug abuse, and Fatphobia

cwallace1005's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

 I wanted so much more 😭 in the best way!

In reading other reviews, I can absolutely see why others didn't like Oona, but I loved her. I just found myself empathizing so much with her. I remember how hard it feels to be 19, and to imagine how it feels to be 19/20/21 and jumping around to different years of your life, where you're in a much older body and have the complications of adulthood without the experience. Whew. It was a ride being with Oona and I would have read 3x the number of pages to see more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol and Death

Minor: Cancer, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Violence

maggies's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved this fun take on time travel—like The Time Traveler's Wife meets Sliding Doors meets One Last Stop, maybe? Oona's journey was difficult and confusing for her, but it was also uplifting. She made lots of choices I don't think I would have, but that made it so much more interesting to me! The twists also kept it engaging throughout, and I think it ended at exactly the right moment. Hugely recommend!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Grief, Abandonment, Death of parent, Death, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Drug use, Transphobia, and Homophobia

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

Truly enthralling concept and execution. I feel like it's a really good exploration of what it means to be kind to yourself in all iterations, past, present, and future. Knocking off a quarter star because the author does the thing where she only describes a character's race if they are nonwhite, which is annoying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Death of parent, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Hate crime

Moderate: Fatphobia, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Medical content, Cancer, Xenophobia, Sexual content, and Cursing

Minor: Violence, War, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Transphobia, Gun violence, and Homophobia

corriejn's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Transphobia, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Drug use, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity, Cancer, Abandonment, Fatphobia, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Addiction, Car accident, and Homophobia

jenn_reads's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The premise is so so interesting, but Oona is not particularly sympathetic and I could do without the repetitive focus about how fat or thin she is whenever she jumps.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Drug use

Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Infidelity

Minor: Transphobia

thecatladybooknook_penny's review against another edition

Explicit sex that I didn't want to read about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Fatphobia

Sex...don't want to read about expicit sex.

znvisser's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

• 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

Although the premise wasn't the most creative, I did enjoy its execution. The book actually avoids most technicalities regarding the time travel and focused more on the relational effects, and I didn't mind at all.

Just when I started to wonder how the story would be wrapped up considering the chosen pace and events, there was a plot twist that took care of that. Didn't see it coming but wasn't too surprised about it either, since the hint dropping was so obvious you knew there was more to it.

Would probably have enjoyed it more if I didn't read it right after Matt Haigs Midnight Library, but nevertheless the story captured my attention and turned out a very decent read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Drug use

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Xenophobia