Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - Bellies

Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

hannah_mariee's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

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sniffybiro's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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mingle_jingle's review

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.0

An interesting premise, exploring the complexities and intersections of love, friendship, queer identity. It feels like an honest representative of the age group portrayed in the book, but I didn't find the characters particularly likeable.

It was thoughtful, sad, honest and poignant in so many aspects of the storyline and character development.

Although this book wasn't my cup of tea, I can see myself recommending this book to others - younger queer folks or parents of queer community members - to get an honest insight into the lives & loves of younger queer people. In this book, I particularly liked the representation of the family members of the two main protagonists.

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joensign's review against another edition

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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? Yes

5.0

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goofymango's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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hi_saac's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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flashandoutbreak's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-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

4.75

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thelarsvolta's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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rhii_reading's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

4.25

Bellies is a queer coming of age story but it also takes the time to really explore all aspects of the challenges young people face when growing up and exploring your identity, and so it becomes much more than this in the best way possible. Dinan puts such care into exploring so many different threads for various characters that never feel forgotten or undeveloped by the end of the novel: Ming’s relationship to Malaysia and his family; the role of food in creating a cultural identity; masculinity and working to Tom’s sense of his political identity and the conflict with his job. Ming is not only trans but she is also Malaysian and the book doesn’t shy away from the specific complexities that brings.

It was really great to have a trans character that was fully fleshed out and had actual flaws, which is not always the case. At the same time, is impossible to ever really dislike Ming or Tom as Dinan always does a great job of rationalising their decisions when writing from their perspectives.

The only issue was that I felt like the catalyst that happens towards the end of the novel could have happened a little earlier. Based of the description of the book I thought that there were be a more substantial amount of time spent on Ming and Tom’s interactions and relationship post Thin Frames.

Overall, this was a wonderful read that captures both the highs and the lows of exploring and discovering your gender identity and the trans experience.

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