Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

16 reviews

established_mint's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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brookesinfinitebooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This short story collection really blew my mind. Machado’s prose is so haunting. It slithers into all those parts of our brains where we hide ugly realities of the world from ourselves and teases them out. I felt so understood as a woman, a mother, someone who’s struggled with body image, and someone who grew up in a conservative environment. 

I would absolutely recommend this book because it’s an incredible examination of modern femininity and sexuality. However, I highly suggest you check out content warnings first. There were several stories that affected me more than I expected, and many trigger points. I had to take this one very slow, in small doses. Which works perfectly for a short story collection - I read one story every few days. 

These stories are definitely going to stick with me for a while. A few I particularly enjoyed: Mothers; Real Women Have Bodies; The Inventory.
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jmq23's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I think a lot of the themes kind of went over my head when i read it. I’m going to have to give it a more in depth read and i’ll probably also have to annotate it too in order to understand. but i loved it, it was meaningful and relatable and the prose was amazing. 
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vigil's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I feel as if a few of the metaphors flew over my head (will likely reread later) but the prose is stunning. machado's ability to craft such visceral stories in a limited space is beyond. i can't believe she got me to briefly care abt law and order svu. this is quite a triggering story, heed the content warnings before going in. 
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neighborhoodbeanreads's review against another edition

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I was really excited to pick tis book up because of the praise it received, but it was extremely underwhelming. The stories were over complicated and unnecessarily triggering at times. The stories had immense build up with very little to give in the end. The nail in the coffin was the story "Especially Heinous" -- which was just 80 pages of unreliable plot summaries from Law and Order SVU. 
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ellenigrace's review against another edition

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4.0

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