Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

10 reviews

amberinpieces's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Vomit, Infidelity, and Chronic illness

Minor: Death, Abortion, Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Drug use, Racism, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pregnancy

hbraith's review

1.0

I was so disappointed by this book. The shifting timeframes and perspectives were very confusing. The chapters didn’t indicate who was narrating or the year, so it was hard to keep track. The two main characters had nearly identical voices too, which added to the difficulty.

I enjoyed the first third, when Fiona and Jane were young and growing up together, but after that it became a mess.

I would have given this book 2 stars, but I had to remove another one for fat phobia/anti-fat bias, there was so much of it woven throughout the story. Every character who wasn’t thin was described with such disgust, it was very disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia

robinks's review

emotional 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

4.5

I really enjoyed reading through these little blips of Fiona & Jane’s lives, the ebbs and flows of their friendship over many years. I didn’t like that some of the stories seemed to be out of chronological order. Also, I sometimes could not understand Jane’s actions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual content, Suicide, Alcohol, and Cancer

Moderate: Grief, Racism, and Fatphobia

Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Homophobia

raphynette's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Racism, Death of parent, Grief, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, and Biphobia

youngblackademic98's review

reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Fatphobia and Racism

burnt_milk's review against another edition

funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoy literary fiction but find it kinda difficult to talk about. Some parts of this really hit, but as is often the case with these kind of stories I wish subjects were given more depth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Outing, and Racism

Minor: Abortion, Sexual assault, and Vomit

toofondofbooks_'s review

emotional funny 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

3.5

"𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕 - 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 - 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔, 𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒑. 𝒘𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍, 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒆?"

This book of short stories chronicles the lives and friendship of Fiona and Jane, two Tawainese women who grew up together and are now trying to find themselves out in the world. They navigate their friendship, relationships, sexuality and family dynamics along the way.

I don't usually have a great relationship with books of short stories, but I liked this one. I think that the stories actually being related and tying into one another really helped. The first story, right off the bat, broke my heart, and I was both scared and excited to read the rest. The stories were all very engaging, but my favorite was "Cold Turkey," which occurs around the halfway mark. I also liked that the side characters who fleshed out the worlds of Fiona & Jane felt complete and real, for better and for worse.

The only reason why this didn't end up getting rated higher for me was - for it being a book about friendship, I didn't see a whole lot of....well, friendship. Fiona & Jane are supposed to be best friends, but in some stories, they don't interact at all or seldom mention each other. When they do. have scenes together, you can tell that there is love there, but it doesn't feel like they should even still be friends - the chemistry wasn't really there for me. However, overall, I did enjoy this read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Abandonment, Outing, Infidelity, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Fatphobia, Grief, Death, Child death, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Cancer, Alcohol, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Dementia, Trafficking, and Abortion

krys_kilz's review

emotional reflective medium-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 loved reading a book dedicated to platonic love and friendship. As one reviewer put it, it felt "subtly subversive" within a dominant culture steeped in romantic love. The ebbs and flows of Fiona and Jane's friendship as they moved apart, grew increasingly distant and changed resonated deeply with my own experiences with long-term friendships. The unspeakable grief of losing the closeness and proximity you had as children and teenagers and the unbearable loneliness of being left behind. The raw emotion captured between these pages broke my heart and healed it simultaneously.

I also thought the story lines unpacking Jane and Fiona's relationships with their parents were really strong. Fiona as her mother's "own heart, walking outside her body" and Jane trying to save Julian in an attempt to save her father - the complexity and messiness were translated beautifully.

My favorite stories in the collection were: Cold Turkey, Clairvoyance, and the title story Fiona and Jane.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Drug use, and Fatphobia

meishallaneous's review

emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Infidelity

Minor: Child death, Fatphobia, Abortion, Biphobia, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, and War

izzyf16's review

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicide, Drug use, and Infidelity

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, and Fatphobia