Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

23 reviews

aubigney's review

dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

I found this book extremely depressing to the point that I couldn’t finish it. I got to the sex worker’s affair and simply stopped reading. It was like everything good in life had been taken away from me. She was also extremely drunk and blacking out when the affair started, which makes me think the author is normalising sexual assault and passing it off as simply an affair instead of someone taking advantage of a sex worker who is much younger. I don’t know why someone would write a book like this except that they themselves were extremely miserable and going through it. The prose was not good so it wasn’t worth finishing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

leannanecdote's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Drug use, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Grief, Sexism, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Cursing, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, and Abandonment

liv_txt's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Bullying, and Eating disorder

ashley_turch's review

dark reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Literally could not put this down. I was captivated the entire time. I LOVE a multiple POV and this did it so well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Classism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Sexism, Infidelity, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Cursing, Infertility, Death of parent, and Violence

sakisreads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-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

3.5

✨ Thrifted ✨

This book has a bit of a slow start so I wasn’t sure how much I’d get into it… But I’m glad I persevered! 
Based around Ara (a mute woman who works at a hair salon), Kyuri (a room salon worker), Miho (an artist whose move back to Seoul is fraught with relationship complications), Sijun (Ara’s protective best friend) and Wonna (the woman who lives in the apartment above the girls), this book had the resonance of ‘Girl, Woman, Other’. We explored beauty, family, feminism, and so much more!
I gave it 3.5 stars because it was, as mentioned above, a bit of a slow burner but once you got into it you couldn’t stop 👏🏼 

Some of my favourite moments included are below 👀

When Ara shoved that assistant Cherry’s head down the toilet, I somehow felt vindication for her 😂

I loved when Miho finally realised Hanbin was not the prince she needed and she was able to find power in her ‘cliché’ moments (e.g. Cutting off some of her hair, deciding to leak photos to the paps…) 🙊

I am also a huge fan of Korean food so all of their descriptors of kalgukksu, KFC etc. made me hungry 😅

Content warnings included below!
Thank you ✨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Grief, Miscarriage, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Death, and Fatphobia

beautifulminutiae's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Fatphobia, and Body shaming

Moderate: Violence and Sexual content

doodeedoda's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Cursing

Moderate: Suicide, Classism, Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Misogyny

Minor: Abortion, Ableism, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

oliviabrcka's review

emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Child abuse, Body shaming, Miscarriage, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Suicide

issyd23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Being a woman in Korea seems tough! Korean beauty standards are BRUTAL 3🤕

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Classism, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, and Miscarriage

jrisants's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

 I started this book having been warned that “it is not happy.” Overall I am struck by the scrappiness, confusion, and community that are born out of struggle. Even though on the whole the book is not happy, as it ended I could not help but reflect on how grateful I am for the ways that women will show up for each other, care for each other, and blend their lives together when the rest of the world fails them.

There is no true conflict or resolution in the book and it reads as vignettes from the lives of five women in South Korea, all of them with unfortunate childhoods. Their experiences can serve as cautionary tales for the ills born of sexism and classism, and the characters themselves sway between upholding these ideals, criticizing them, and suffering from them.

In one of the stories Miho is in New York navigating a world full of new cultural norms and surrounded by acquaintances who have already lived abroad and come from rich families. At a party she compliments the pink walls which were decorated by a Portuguese designer, and the compliment is brushed off and treated as against custom to speak about. Later Papa John’s is ordered for the guests and everyone responds excitedly to the food. Miho reflects to herself that she is learning you cannot compliment beautiful decor, but you can make a fuss over takeout food and that these are the things she is still trying to learn and navigate.

Miho also later discussed her experiences with other artists and how she assumes coming from a wealthy family means that you must be happy—but when she looks on the art of the wealthy students she sees deep despair, almost indicating that their suffering has been worse than hers.

At various points in the book there are deep comparisons between men’s experience compared to women, and the wealthy compared to those in poverty. Wrapped in these comparisons are the changed expectations and challenges of the young generation. We see this when Ara finally meets Tain and her idol is cruel abs ruins her perception of him. This plays out again with Kyuri and Bruce who is so nice to her at AJax and then violent when he sees her in his world. Wonna with her aunt and uncle, and even her husband who all have lives that she cannot touch and she seems to both idolize and resent them for it. Soogin is the only one who seems completely removed from these comparisons, seemingly having had a live that never invited her to mingle with those systemically better off than her. She also seems to be the force that knits these women together. She protects and sees power in each of the women, and she creates scenarios for them to pursue it. It is almost as if full acceptance of her position is what enables her to joyfully expect better and rebel against it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Abandonment, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment