Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

10 reviews

robinsons515's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Abandonment, Rape, Hate crime, Classism, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Death, Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual content, and Child abuse

theelliad's review against another edition

3.5

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is Maya Angelou’s autobiography, exploring the challenges and triumphs of her life. 

This was required reading for my module last year and despite really enjoying what I read of it, I never got round to reading the full book until now. Angelou’s writing is so beautiful and captivating, especially when read by herself, I literally had to finish this in one sitting! I’m not typically a non-fiction reader and so the narrative exploration and descriptive attention to detail felt as immersive and entertaining as any fiction. Her coming to terms with herself, her trauma and the struggles of those around her is made both painful and relatable even for those who have never or will never experience the things she did. This is a case study in self writing and Angelou truly is someone to be studied and remembered. I don’t however understand the purpose of making an autobiography 7 <200 books? Perhaps that is just how storygraph classifies it but this book alone definitely didn’t feel complete which was annoying, I would happily have endured a longer cohesive piece instead of having to spread the reading across multiple books. (note post finishing: apparently there is audio editions of all 7 in one so that’s my bad i just didn’t realise it had 7 parts so didn’t think to look) Overall an enjoyable read :))

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Racism, and Ableism

Moderate: Child abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Abortion and War

ritte_e's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Misogyny, Bullying, Grief, Medical content, Body shaming, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, and Slavery

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

Difficult to read, but in the way that it challenges how you think about things.

In particular this made me consider the times it took place during, the "good ole days" and how shitty they were for a lot people.  I make it a habit to not read much about a book before I pick it up to give everything a fair chance and the reason why I picked those one up was because I saw it on a list of commonly banned books.  While it contains some mature(-ish) content, it is much tamer than many things I read as a youth and the value of showing other-ing on a personal degree is unmatched.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Abandonment, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Grief, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual violence, and War

bookishlittleme's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Maya Angelou is an incredibly significant figure in the arts and this is definitely a must read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Racism, Rape, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, and Car accident

Minor: War, Body shaming, and Blood

a_bloom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

It took a little while for me to get used to the writing and actually interested in the story, but within a hundred pages it REALLY captured my attention. Her writing is beautiful and descriptive and painfully aware of how her younger self perceived the situation of her birth and life. However, the last few chapters come off awkward as it strays from the usual pacing, but considering she had more autobots it makes sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Sexual violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Grief, Death, Blood, Abortion, and Addiction

Minor: Infidelity, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, War, Incest, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Slavery

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Racism, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Body shaming, Ableism, Sexism, Grief, Mental illness, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Medical content, and Child abuse

Minor: Child death, Bullying, War, Infidelity, Car accident, Police brutality, Torture, Slavery, Infertility, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Drug use, and Classism

Poverty, WWII, concentration camps, Japanese displacement, homelessness, d slur.

mrsdarcylynn's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

I think I’m going to bump up my star rating- I had an average reading experience, but that may have been due to the darker elements of the book. In the end, I had a really hard time connecting to the narrative and the “so what”- maybe because I have read other narratives/stories like this one. Or maybe because so many memoirs today take the individual experience and connect it to larger world/societal events. Or maybe I don’t find memoirs about one’s childhood that interesting? 

I struggled with some of the authors outdated views regarding fatness,  being gay, and a few other issues that really took me out of the reading experience. I definitely recommend looking at trigger warnings before diving in- there’s some heavy topics. 

I think I would have benefited from reading some of her other work before her autobiography. Maybe then I would have connected to her writing on a deeper level. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Body shaming, Rape, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Racism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, and Death

nrhilmer's review

challenging emotional slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pregnancy, Cursing, Sexism, Ableism, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Classism, and Hate crime

shibaunited's review against another edition

challenging funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Body shaming, Classism, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence