Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Her Body and Other Parties

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

74 reviews

raynaaskiverr's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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xwritingstoriesx's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense 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

4.25

4.25 stars! I liked this short story collection, though I did not love it. Real Women Have Bodies and The Resident were two stories that I felt were too long and weirdly paced. I didn't understand the intention behind certain parts, were they explicit or meant to be decoded further? It was difficult to tell.
Considering the stories I liked, the pacing was great, the plot was inventive and I wanted to see where the author would take the characters. One that hit particularly hard, Inventory, follows a young woman as she navigates an epidemic. She retells her past through the lens of human interaction, something which now threatens to kill her and it painfully emulates the current events of our own pandemic.
Especially Heinous is a fusion of meta-fanfiction and pop culture fiction, utilising Law And Order SVU characters in a satirical and yet haunting plot. It is constructed through the plot summary of each episode, chronicling their ever evolving disillusionment, which I still ponder over. It was such a unique concept and its execution exceeded my expectations. I've never read anything quite like it.
Last but not least, Eight Bites presents a woman who struggles with her weight and her body image. Disordered eating follows her throughout her life but nothing is ever enough for her nor her siblings. I found it interesting that the narrator views her own pregnancy through the perspective of her weight gain, as opposed to the beauty of child birth and its blessings. It shows the extent of which diet culture and the industry itself can sabotage and scar times of celebration and joyous occasions. Consequently, her relationship with food casts a shadow upon her relationship with her adult daughter, yet she refuses to see it, believing her daughter is at fault. The final scene is heartbreaking. This story details how the lack of self love is not only a disservice to yourself but to the women you surround yourself with. To firmly love oneself is not only for yourself but for the many generations of women that come after you.

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vigil's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I feel as if a few of the metaphors flew over my head (will likely reread later) but the prose is stunning. machado's ability to craft such visceral stories in a limited space is beyond. i can't believe she got me to briefly care abt law and order svu. this is quite a triggering story, heed the content warnings before going in.

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neighborhoodbeanreads's review against another edition

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I was really excited to pick tis book up because of the praise it received, but it was extremely underwhelming. The stories were over complicated and unnecessarily triggering at times. The stories had immense build up with very little to give in the end. The nail in the coffin was the story "Especially Heinous" -- which was just 80 pages of unreliable plot summaries from Law and Order SVU.

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dhritigupta's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

it took me a bit to get through this, but i still liked it! i felt like i was too dumb to fully understand the stories a lot of the time, but many of them still stuck with me! the writing was beautiful the whole way through, but some stories i wanted to know what was going on a bit more!! my faves were mothers, inventory, real women have bodies and eight bites. however, even with the ones i didn’t get as much, i’m still thinking about them, bc they grow on you by the time you finish the story. like with especially heinous and the resident i’m still thinking about the perfect eeriness, even if i didn’t love them.

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