Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir

6 reviews

annablanna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.0

Smashed through this in a couple of days. The three stories differ in style and content but each make a nuanced comment on marriage, female emotion, and mania. Inherently French and a picture of second-wave feminist writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Infidelity

Minor: Racial slurs, Body shaming, War, and Racism

mmikenaite's review against another edition

dark 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So raw, so sad and beautiful, the perfect description of the female experience

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Blood, and Body shaming

mayaspasta's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, and Death

rooney_shay's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This edition included two other short stories as well as “The Woman Destroyed” (TWD, for short). I enjoyed TWD much more than the other two stories, but they all focused around woman dealing with loss in their lives. 

TWD dealt with the main character slowly losing her husband to another woman, but with him goes her sense of self.

 
It was deeply saddening and really hurt my heart. I began to empathize with the main character and only wanted to see her happy. 
<small spoiler>The only reason I’m not giving this a 5/5 is because of the ambiguous ending. I’m not a huge a fan of unresolved conflict, so just a small warning to those of you like me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Infidelity

Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Classism, and Drug use

nabila99's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

my first experience with de Beauvoir was reading the second sex for gender theory class at university. if only i knew she was so talented a fiction writer as well!

this book is absolutely heart-wrenching, so much so that i had to start reading another book in the middle of it, even though i was really enjoying it, because it is so heavy....i've read novels with much darker and sadder subject material, but the way de Beauvoir writes about pain, loss of identity, desperation, resentment, hope, and despair is so visceral i cried multiple times, especially in the last eponymous short story. she captures women's suffering like no other.

i only took off a half star because the writing style in the second short story, the monologue, is so difficult to follow (even though it's genius and i admire the technique and contrast in narrative voices), and some of the side characters could have been more fleshed out. 

cannot wait to read more of de Beauvoir's work!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Drug abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Alcohol, Misogyny, Death, Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Eating disorder, Suicide, Abandonment, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Blood, Abortion, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, and Sexual content

skyealexandra's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75

This is one of my new favorite books. I adore Simone De Beauvoir's writing style. It takes an incredible writer to get me emotionally invested in stories about mothers, because it is simply something I have no way of relating to, but De Beauvoir did so wonderfully.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity

Moderate: Body shaming