Reviews tagging 'Acephobia/Arophobia'

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

10 reviews

kurumipanda's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Alcoholism, Death, Grief, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Infertility, and Cancer

Minor: Sexual content, Child abuse, Murder, Acephobia/Arophobia, Suicide, Rape, Pedophilia, Medical content, Body horror, and Body shaming

ord1narymach1ne's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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

5.0

i just love stories and this book gives me exactly that. this is why i read nothing more nothing less

wanted to add that in the beginning it was reminding me of a manga called ikoku nikki 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

hopeadinfinitum's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Alcohol, Transphobia, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Cancer, Death, Body shaming, and Infertility

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

reflective slow-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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcohol, and Infertility

Moderate: Cancer, Dysphoria, Pregnancy, Grief, Terminal illness, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Minor: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Eating disorder, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Rape, Violence, Medical content, Acephobia/Arophobia, Incest, Body shaming, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, and Death

provo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.5

It took me over a year to read this book. It is incredibly slow but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. We follow an asexual cis woman who tries to figure out if and how to have a child. There is a lot of backdrop of japanese society’s expectations of women and motherhood, it also deals with poverty and growing up without a father. 
I found a lot of the thoughts very interesting, though as an European non-binary person with no wish for children i could only relate so far. 
What I really liked was how many different (heterosexual cis) women with very diverse views on womanhood and motherhood were represented. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Acephobia/Arophobia, Abandonment, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Classism, and Grief

Minor: Pedophilia

inkmir's review against another edition

reflective slow-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Acephobia/Arophobia

Moderate: Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse

Minor: Child death

sydneybedell's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Infertility, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Suicide, Transphobia, and Cancer

nabila99's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

a beautifully written, insightful, melancholy exploration of patriarchy, womanhood, motherhood, loneliness, and career stagnation. much of this book was just long conversations that the main characters have with other people and themselves, and they feel so real. their problems are ours, our mothers' and sisters', our friends' and acquaintances'. even though there is no "plot" to speak of, i flew through the chapters and was excited to be in natsuko's head again every time i put it down.

virtually the only issue i have with this book, and the reason i took off half a star, is that although i really enjoyed the second half and all of natsuko's musings about asexuality, single motherhood and her future, i did feel the absence of makiko and midoriko. it would have been nice to see their development also, where they were in their journeys. 

nevertheless, kawakami's writing and characterisation are stunning, and i can't wait to read more of her work

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Medical content, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Sexual content, Cancer, Death, and Body shaming

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Infertility

madamdun's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism and Acephobia/Arophobia

Minor: Transphobia and Sexual assault

becks_books's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Ultimately, I think this was a really excellent novel, it discusses important topics in a way that's honest and often uncomfortable (there are a lot of content warnings in this book) but it does also have some hope in it.

The book is mainly focused on 2 things: breasts (expectations of women's bodies, especially as they age and have children and how their bodies are perceived, and ultimately how that affects the women and their view of themselves), and eggs (who gets to have children? And the difficulties some people face in having children and accessing services like sperm banks because of their circumstances, specifically in Japan).

Personally, I have absolutely 0 desire to have children and while I've had times where I felt a lot of pressure to look a certain way, I feel like I'm at a place where I can just accept my body for what it is, but reading about people with different circumstances can be really enlightening and I really felt for the women in this story and their circumstances and problems, I think the part about birth and desperately wanting a child was really well done especially, and I just wanted Natsu to find happiness, whatever that looked like for her in the end.

Overall, a really interesting read. Just go in with caution.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Body shaming and Infidelity

I found the parts where the characters felt hopeless and depressed triggered my own depression a bit, so something to be mindful of. I can't remember if there's any other content warnings, but I think this gives you an idea of the content anyway.