Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

21 reviews

carriepond's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-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 have decided to make a concerted effort to re-read more books this year, and picked up Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye again partly based on my experience of re-reading Sula for a book club and noticing how different parts of the book resonated more with me years later than when I first read it in college.

Long hours she sat, looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike . . . It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights-- if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.

It has been so long since I last read The Bluest Eye that I was really approaching it almost from a blank slate-- other than the concept, I had largely forgotten the plot (even very major and disturbing plot points). I am very glad I re-read this novel because it brilliantly explores internalized anti-blackness, or as Morrison puts it in her foreword, "the damaging internalization of assumptions of immutable inferiority originating in an outside gaze." It is a heartbreaking and tragic novel that, like every book by Toni Morrison I've read, is expertly crafted. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Racism, Child abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Bullying, and Pedophilia

Minor: Fatphobia

bimbo_andthe_bookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

too many things to say, full review on my blog

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Rape, Hate crime, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Classism, Pedophilia, Incest, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia

jme14's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

Toni Morrison is officially in my top two authors of all time (next to Steinbeck, I can't choose between them). Morrison is a master at manipulating the form to tell her stories as they are supposed to be told. There are no rules: the story is out of order, the characters are unrelentingly disturbing and disturbed, and the language blunt. She is the master of empathy. She conjures such vile actors, then turns your rage into uncomfortable sadness, transferring that rage from the individual to the setting. I don't know how she can do it, but she's done it twice (in her labeled masterpiece "Beloved" and now in this). Her work is deeply disturbing, but there's no other way to convey these themes in a way as affecting as this. She is a true master and deserving in her place among the greatest authors of all time. 

I don't think this is QUITE as good as "Beloved" due to her clearly more unrefined style. This feels more restrained with its magical realism and slightly less comprehensive with its characters, but that is some extreme nit-picking. Seriously, read this book. I'm so excited (and emotionally nervous) to read the rest of her work. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Bullying, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Racism, Grief, Excrement, Alcohol, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Animal death, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, and Incest

booksbutmakeitgay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Incest, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Vomit, Violence, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Sexism

rsngphoenix's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Addiction, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Grief, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Violence, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, and Incest

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.0

I was going to initially leave this book without rating bc it overflowed me with soul crushing despair and anger and so much discomfort but I can't deny how well crafted this distressing book is and how Toni Morrison was a truly sublime writer. Can't add anything more insightful than this I feel terribly inadequate and uneducated right now. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Classism, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Miscarriage

michaelion's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

At first, I didn't get it. Then, I was starting to get it. Then, by the end, I thought I didn't get it. But apparently I got it the whole time, it's just that the time this book was written for is very different from the time of today. Things have changed a lot, but in many ways after reading this they haven't changed at all. I don't think I liked this book very much, but in some ways I did. I like Morrison's writing style and use of language. Something about it felt very familiar, very eerie, which made it unknown and familiar again. The things she wanted to say, to me, with the hindsight of 52 years in my 22 year old life, have been said again and again and I found myself asking "What was the point?" Which is never a good thing to have to ask. Not every book needs a lesson or a moral or a point. I know what the point was, I've seen it since I was as young as 3 years old, when my parents taught me black was beautiful and thus I never wished to be white, and I understood what race was, meant, and symbolized before I could write my own name down with a steady hand. I realize that the point was made 52 years ago when it was published, or 42 years ago, having been seen with the fresh eyes of a new decade, or even 32 years ago with the fresh eyes of a new generation. By the time I was born the book was probably just a memory of the shadow of an era. So now, personally, I don't like this book, but I do. I respect it. I'm sure had I been 22 when it was published in 1970 I would've loved this book. But again, things have changed and also things haven't. I see that it was important for the time, and it still kind of is, but now reading it I felt the sour feeling in my stomach I do reading and watching media from the decades that have come between then and now: it just felt like black trauma. Too much of it. I'm just tired. Been tired of it since before I was a teenager. Good book. Don't know if I would recommend it, but I certainly will reread.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Gaslighting, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Classism, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Animal death, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Blood, Fatphobia, Abandonment, and Ableism

marthadude's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Mental illness and Abandonment

Minor: Excrement, Fatphobia, and Grief

Heavy warnings for incest, rape, pedophilia, and racism. Even though the book spoils this in the beginning

Pecola, an 11 year old girl, is raped and impregnated by her own father. The scene is fairly disturbing. It's not overly graphic but it is explicit and hard to read. Pecola is not only beaten by her mother because of this, but the townspeople look down on her despite being the victim. As a trauma response, she is driven to a sort of madness. The baby also doesn't make it.

. There is also a character who is a self confessed pedophile, but there are no explicit scenes between him and children.

ravenanjell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Violence

amberinbookland's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit