Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - All's Well

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

All's Well by Mona Awad

8 reviews

kailynbee's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

ciaomara's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

amandaraemor's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

An intense, spiraling descent into the ways pain contorts our minds and bodies, and the ways in which the medical industry profits off of that pain. Miranda is definitely not a “good” person by any means, but you also can’t 100% hate her when seeing firsthand the abuse she suffers, major and minor, from every doctor or therapist she attempts to ease her suffering. Both the plot and characters are given more dimension through the two Shakespeare plays — All’s Well That Ends Well and Macbeth — that sit at its center, to the point where Miranda may as well be the tragic hero instead of the resourceful heroine she once portrayed on stage. I could write a whole thesis on the theater references alone!

Content Warnings

annaonthepage's review against another edition

4.0

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I loved this all the way through to the end, which left me dissatisfied. It really spoke to me as an actor and a woman with chronic pain. The elements of Macbeth woven into the story were delicious. There were some cheekily haunting refrains and a brilliant sense of character in the protagonist and her friend. I just wish it had committed fully and not pulled the punches in the end - it felt very much like a horror, with a building sense of dread, but then blew the threat away to turn it into magical realism. Which, I guess if you're reimagining Shakespeare, isn't unlikely. It's just not a trope that fit the rest of the book.

Content Warnings

rionstorm's review against another edition

1.5

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I did not like this book.
There were a few nice pieces of writing, like the description of chronic nerve pain as "red webs", but mostly the writing felt clumsy, messy, and melodramatic. It has the feel of an edgy teenager's fanfiction, but not in a good way.
The plot feels very cliche but also doesn't resolve in a way that feels satisfying. It seemed like it was going to go in an interesting direction a few times, but then consistently took the most obvious and least interesting path.
There is also a bunch of weird moral implications? Maybe I'm missing something but the main character really seemed to be portrayed as a bad person for being unwell and angry about it. It was also peppered with fatphobia, and had a similar misogynistic undercurrent to Bunny.
Also similar to Bunny, the implied experience of madness/psychosis/delusions felt very much how someone without much actual information or sensitivity around the subject would write it. Gave me the vibe of, again, am edgy teenager RPing as a ~crazy~ character.
Overall disappointing.

Content Warnings

eisenbuns's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Reading Mona Awad's books requires a certain amount of faith. It is a leap, in a way, to give yourself over to the extreme and the absurd so wholly. Is it worth it? Will I reach the end of the journey and wonder whether the journey even happened? I've certainly felt that way reading literature like this before. Bret Easton Ellis comes to mind. But after reading 'Bunny' and letting myself go along for the insane, quirky, ride, I knew what I was getting into when I started 'All's Well.'

I'm so glad I was able to put aside all of my concerns and preconceptions, and dive into this work. 'All's Well' is a story of magic, of witches, of the fantastical and the mundane. It's also, primarily, a story about living with chronic pain. How it feels to be rendered invisible to professionals and loved ones alike. How it transforms you.

I think this book is an absolute masterpiece. I loved it even as I hated it.

Content Warnings