Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Normal People by Sally Rooney

211 reviews

scripturient's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The prose is great and I liked the realistic portrayal of the anxieties of young adulthood. But I was just waiting for those two idiots to have an ACTUAL CONVERSATION and they never did. Nothing changed in the end. Meh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Body shaming, and Sexual violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders

deemaaziz's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Alcohol, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Bullying, and Sexual violence

noceur's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

i liked it in the beginning and thought it was going to be a 4 star but then it got repetitive and i lost interest also some parts made no sense to me and what was that ending you can't even call it an end it feels like it was unfinished 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Body shaming

Minor: Bullying and Suicide

cdoubet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Body horror, Cursing, Grief, and Rape

pageafter_paige's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

I truely loved this book so much. I liked the unique writing style and I found the characters very loves me. I was rooting for Marianne and Connell the entire time as the grew up together. This book break my heart in many pieces but that just shows how invested I was. I can’t believe I hadn’t read this sooner. This book is definitely one worth the hype! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Cursing, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Classism, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Body shaming

ericispublius's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Body shaming, Racism, Toxic friendship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Classism

s1dn37's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

The cover of the French version is HORRIBLE, but the story is really good even if I expected a little more than that. It is clearly very well written, but I didn't like the story more than that. Since I found it a little redundant. There were a lot of REPETITIONS and the protagonists exased me by force

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Body shaming, Racial slurs, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

paulaks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Something that came to my mind while reading, was that this book (the way it´s written and curated) gives me major: artsy depressed feministic not like other girls traumatised literature student vibes. I do not know if this makes sense at all but in my head it does. Now decide by your reaction if you´re intrigued or annoyed. Now to my thoughts:

This book is A LOT while being quite uneventful. Being character driven, it follows 2 characters over 4 years. Documenting my life for that long would be the most boring piece of literature but Connell and Marianne are SO complicated and traumatized. That has to be my first warning: The amount of triggers that are passively talked about is worrying. Please check those before reading (I tried to list some). Overall the reading experience was quite intense. Since there are no quotation marks, the thoughts, storytelling and conversations blend in together which can be confusing but makes for a really intriguing experience. The writing style was 10/10 so no need to continue on that.

Honestly, you can categorize the people that read this novel by their rating into two groups: The group that didn´t build a connection, were annoyed or angry or aren´t empathetic (= ratings lower than 2.5). And the ones who identified themselves with character traits or are just really empathetic (= rating 2.5+). Just a little thesis of mine, don´t take it to seriously. But what you should take serious is the fact that if you can´t build any connection with one of the MCs by the 50% mark, there is little to no point in reading this. I was quite invested so here´s my experience: Their decision-making had me on my toes, even tho the way they continued making wrong choices was exhausting. But it´s definitely interesting how trauma can shape a human being. This aspect shocked me a few times and made me question my own behaviour.

Lastly, the title choice is well done. Who is normal? Are we normal people? Do we want to be normal people? At least I was trying to answer that question.

My rating right now would be a 4 star. The potential was there and maybe I´m the problem but sometimes there were illogical moments and situations that made me uncomfortable (most of the time with Marianne). As you can guess by my long review, this is a great book for a group discussion but be aware that this would reveal a lot of personal stuff since Normal people is an intimate story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Body shaming, Classism, Drug use, Abortion, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Blood, Eating disorder, and Gaslighting

clazbee's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

1.5

I’ll be honest: I only read this book as it was part of my required reading. It’s not the sort of book I typically seek out, so perhaps I’m being overly harsh on it. However, this book was boring. The prose is simple, the lack of speech markers infuriating, and the plot revolves entirely around a lack of communication between the characters which I personally cannot stand. The few plot points that could be interesting- both Marianne and Connell seeming to lie on the ace spectrum, the introduction of BDSM, eating disorders- are all superficial and lack any real depth. Equating BDSM to being abused as a child/feeling worthless just feels cheap and harmful without any surrounding discussion. The only issue handled remotely well is that of mental illness, but even that just… happens. Everything in this novel simply is. And then it ends.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Blood, Bullying, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

dlsmk's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

3.25

Bruh. I have so many thoughts on this book and honestly I'm so scattered because I don't know why this is so beloved. Like I think I get it but I also don't know. And so I can't articulate my thoughts properly, which upsets me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Body shaming, Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Violence