Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Il suo corpo e altre feste by Carmen Maria Machado

172 reviews

taylorsevalia's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Rape, Blood, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Self harm, Vomit, and Murder

graceocat12's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, and Sexual content

booksnbones13's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

a great collection of stories that stick with you. well written and mysterious and creepy, but also sad and at times endearing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

dromedaryreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I loved some of the stories in this book. Others seemed lazy and were too caught up in small details to work as a short story. Eight Bites, Mothers, Difficult At Parties, and The Husband Stitch were my personal favorites. Inventory and The Resident were alright. I was not a fan of Real Women Have Bodies or Especially Heinous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

woweewhoa's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

This is a weighed review because if Especially Heinous was on its own, I'd rate it 5 Stars. The writing is haunting and the way it describes things is very vivid. I enjoyed it a lot!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

amandalorianxo's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I’ve never read someone that has my last name in the publishing / book world. So that was cool. I recommend this if you want a debut novel from a sapphic Latinx authorI that doesn’t have a lot of sun and more of a intimate, deeper darkness. So I had to go slow to get through these short stories. Each story encompasses a different view of how women’s bodies are used, abused and taken control over. It’s emotional and triggering at times so I would be mindful of violent imagery, rape/rape mention, abuse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content

solouncapitulomas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I was expecting more from you bby, but I did like some of the stories (specially the first one)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Vomit

bookgirllife's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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

4.5

I had huge expectations going into Her Body and Other Parties. This collection has been praised so highly to me and the themes it explores are ones that I naturally gravitate towards in literature. Carmen Maria Machado blew those expectations to smithereens within the first short story. Honestly one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Her Body and Other Parties discusses the many forms of violence enacted towards women’s bodies through the use of magical realism. Machado writes with rage, heartache, and beautiful symbolism. This is not a collection that tells the audience what the purpose of the pieces, or the many takeaway, was. Instead Machado encourages her readers to interpret their own meanings from the stories she shares.

This collection left me feeling ripped open. I had to take some time to process it before I could write this review.

Machado’s writing in Her Body and Other Parties makes me eager to pick up another of her works. I think that’s the mark of really excellent writing. Machado plays with tone and pacing in a way that enhances the overall feel of each story and the collection as a whole. Her use of language appeals to the readers empathy and makes for a moving experience. I found the writing accessible but themes can often be a bit more abstract, which might detract the overall interpretability of the writing for some readers. Personally, I enjoyed this.

Her Body and Other Parties tackles themes of identity, the body and violences enacted upon it (be it at the hands of others or the self), motherhood, toxic relationships, and the idea of The Mad Woman. All in all, I think Machado does a powerful job of expressing the complexities of womanhood. She leaves the reader with a lot to think about. These themes are explored through the use of magical realism, which I thought drew attention to themes in a subtle but impactful way.

This book challenged me as a reader to really apply my critical thinking skills and decipher what the message of these stories were and what I took away from them. Her Body and Other Parties addresses such important themes with nuance, in a way that does a very respectable level of justice to the themes of the stories. I also loved just how queer this book was and the way Machado never addresses its queerness. It is so refreshingly normalised within this book.

The only reason I withheld the 5-star rating from this book was because the story ‘Especially Heinous’, which conceptually was cool but the execution did not live up to it. I did not enjoy reading it at all. I found it boring and far too long for what it was trying to achieve. Maybe if I already had some sort of investment in Law and Order SUV, I would’ve enjoyed it more. As it stands, I skimmed most of that story to get it over with. I might even recommend just skipping it if within the first few pages, you find its not your thing, because it really doesn’t get better. I think my overall enjoyment of the book would’ve been higher had I not attempted to read it. I also think I would’ve finished the book faster if that one short story hadn’t single-handedly sent me into a reading slump.

That being said, every other story was really really good and so worth reading. I think Machado is a fantastic writer and Her Body and Other Parties is an exceptional debut. Anyone that enjoys feminist literature, magical realism and a slightly eery feeling to their fiction will enjoy this collection. It is well-paced and interesting. Her Body and Other Parties stays with you after you’ve closed the last page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

newtons's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Blood