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carlyesue's review
3.0
Great story, petered out a little at the end. Wish I could give it 3.5 rather than 3.
nerdalert219's review
3.0
You can also watch my review here: https://youtu.be/_d-IzVBxmQQ
I did enjoy the first part of this book. I could really relate to Plum – an overweight woman who works from home for a major business. The routine is the same every day and you avoid certain situations because of your weight.
That being said, I did not like the character development of this book at all. Plum went from a quiet and sweet woman to an angry, vengeful bitch. The change was so abrupt and just unrealistic.
I think this book would be a great pic for a book club! This is def a discussion worthy book! This book covers some heavy hitting topics like the inner struggle of being who you are vs. society’s expectations. It also brings up how the female body is exploited on a daily basis.
Warning: This book takes feminism to the EXTREME.
I did enjoy the first part of this book. I could really relate to Plum – an overweight woman who works from home for a major business. The routine is the same every day and you avoid certain situations because of your weight.
That being said, I did not like the character development of this book at all. Plum went from a quiet and sweet woman to an angry, vengeful bitch. The change was so abrupt and just unrealistic.
I think this book would be a great pic for a book club! This is def a discussion worthy book! This book covers some heavy hitting topics like the inner struggle of being who you are vs. society’s expectations. It also brings up how the female body is exploited on a daily basis.
Warning: This book takes feminism to the EXTREME.
l1ttlel1braryn00k's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
bookph1le's review
4.0
This is a complicated book, not a lighthearted, fluffy romcom romp. That is not to insult the romcom--I am a big fan of fluffy and fun when I'm in the mood for it. Dietland, on the other hand, is a brutal, often hard to take, depiction of life as a woman.
Told mainly through the lens of its 300-pound main character, Plum, this is a book that makes you cringe at the way society tends to treat people who don't fall within an "acceptable"--whatever that means--body type.
However, the book is more than that as the narrative is framed as a deep, deep deconstruction of what drives the kind of discrimination and cruelty Plum faces. It's an exploration of themes of acceptability that encourage women to subvert their feelings and subject themselves to extreme dietary and beauty methods in order to fit into the narrow (quite literally) role society defines for them. The book is a pretty disturbing meditation on the ways women are encouraged to strive for a "best self" that has little to do with a woman's own happiness or interests in life.
This aspect of the book in particular left me unsettled. It's as if Plum isn't a person, but a project. Rather than engaging with and living her life, she's put it on hold until a future version of herself can start living it. After being bombarded with messages both implicit and explicit, it's easy to see why she lives in the kind of stasis she does, and it's a state I think many women can probably relate to. It's sadly common for women to think things like "when I'm ten pounds thinner, I'll...", begging the question of what they'll do in the interim. Why do women often do this? Why not go out and live the life we have while we have it to live?
I thought Plum herself was a good embodiment of the utter frustration, confusion, and outright pain of being a woman. This book tackles a lot--weight, beauty standards, porn, rape--precisely because women are bombarded with all of these things, often on a daily basis. In a startling scene, one character discusses this and then asks whether it could be considered a form of terrorism. I think there's something to that point.
I could not put this book down, but I gave it four stars instead of five because I was uncomfortable with the violence, even though I suspect that's part of the point. After all, we live in a world where violence is disproportionately visited on women, and we're making very slow progress with changing that sad fact.
Told mainly through the lens of its 300-pound main character, Plum, this is a book that makes you cringe at the way society tends to treat people who don't fall within an "acceptable"--whatever that means--body type.
However, the book is more than that as the narrative is framed as a deep, deep deconstruction of what drives the kind of discrimination and cruelty Plum faces. It's an exploration of themes of acceptability that encourage women to subvert their feelings and subject themselves to extreme dietary and beauty methods in order to fit into the narrow (quite literally) role society defines for them. The book is a pretty disturbing meditation on the ways women are encouraged to strive for a "best self" that has little to do with a woman's own happiness or interests in life.
This aspect of the book in particular left me unsettled. It's as if Plum isn't a person, but a project. Rather than engaging with and living her life, she's put it on hold until a future version of herself can start living it. After being bombarded with messages both implicit and explicit, it's easy to see why she lives in the kind of stasis she does, and it's a state I think many women can probably relate to. It's sadly common for women to think things like "when I'm ten pounds thinner, I'll...", begging the question of what they'll do in the interim. Why do women often do this? Why not go out and live the life we have while we have it to live?
I thought Plum herself was a good embodiment of the utter frustration, confusion, and outright pain of being a woman. This book tackles a lot--weight, beauty standards, porn, rape--precisely because women are bombarded with all of these things, often on a daily basis. In a startling scene, one character discusses this and then asks whether it could be considered a form of terrorism. I think there's something to that point.
I could not put this book down, but I gave it four stars instead of five because I was uncomfortable with the violence, even though I suspect that's part of the point. After all, we live in a world where violence is disproportionately visited on women, and we're making very slow progress with changing that sad fact.
afroditi's review
5.0
I loved this book. I got into it expecting something fluffy and easy to read and was nothing near it. It triggered me so many times and all those times I had to take a deep breath, calm down and keep reading.
I deeply empathasized with the protaginist's struggle to live in a society, when you don't fit in what other people define as 'normal'. In this case the protagonist doesn't fit into the standards of young, slim, beautiful woman, so see is humiliated and excluded from social life (for instance her boss doesn't want her to work in the office because her weight will destroy the perfect image of the company).
She is living her life waiting to have her stomach reduction surgery and start living after that. She buys clothes for after her transformation and keeps fantasizing about her life after the surgery (how relatable to those of you that have bought clothes one/two size smaller after starting a diet to keep you going).
I liked the author's critique on the rape culture and the objectification of women. Women are dehumanized in the book(like in reality) and are turned to a commodity.
The character's growth is amazing also. I liked it that her anger is part of her personal development. She stops being timid and starts reacted to the insults of random people about her looks. It goes against social expectation of women being smiling, well-behaved and non-confronting and that's why I loved it.
The dynamics between Alicia/Plum and the other female characters was another great element of the book. So much empathy and support!
The book also sets the question whether violence belongs in activism. If violence is accepted if it is for a greater good (in this case punishing the violence against women). It is up to the reader to say if they find it acceptable or not and that's one of the reasons the book is so comtroversial.
Overall 4.5 for me which I will round up to 5. The 0.5 goes away because the author said the initial idea/trigger was fight club and I would love to see the idea of the Jeniffers going further.
Trigger warnings: fatphobia, rape culture, eating disorders
I deeply empathasized with the protaginist's struggle to live in a society, when you don't fit in what other people define as 'normal'. In this case the protagonist doesn't fit into the standards of young, slim, beautiful woman, so see is humiliated and excluded from social life (for instance her boss doesn't want her to work in the office because her weight will destroy the perfect image of the company).
She is living her life waiting to have her stomach reduction surgery and start living after that. She buys clothes for after her transformation and keeps fantasizing about her life after the surgery (how relatable to those of you that have bought clothes one/two size smaller after starting a diet to keep you going).
I liked the author's critique on the rape culture and the objectification of women. Women are dehumanized in the book(like in reality) and are turned to a commodity.
The character's growth is amazing also. I liked it that her anger is part of her personal development. She stops being timid and starts reacted to the insults of random people about her looks. It goes against social expectation of women being smiling, well-behaved and non-confronting and that's why I loved it.
The dynamics between Alicia/Plum and the other female characters was another great element of the book. So much empathy and support!
The book also sets the question whether violence belongs in activism. If violence is accepted if it is for a greater good (in this case punishing the violence against women). It is up to the reader to say if they find it acceptable or not and that's one of the reasons the book is so comtroversial.
Overall 4.5 for me which I will round up to 5. The 0.5 goes away because the author said the initial idea/trigger was fight club and I would love to see the idea of the Jeniffers going further.
Trigger warnings: fatphobia, rape culture, eating disorders
bookedbymadeline's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
It started off great, I enjoyed Plum’s journey! I love the concept of women righting the wrongs of the judicial system and patriarchy but it was semi exclusionary in its feminism because they were pretty anti sex work and “women have vaginas and that’s what makes us women” TERF-y vibes.
Pacing felt off, it would slow down and honestly it felt like two different books at times. The first half was much more interesting and the terrorism plot line as well but the two never fully meshed which led to me not enjoying the second half.
Sometimes too much telling over showing with overly descriptive writing of minute details but then important events would be rushed. I wanted to just get the book over with by the last 100 pages and think it should’ve been so much shorter. I never felt fully engaged and would set it aside after only 1 chapter to scroll on my phone instead and was rushing to finish it.
Sometimes too much telling over showing with overly descriptive writing of minute details but then important events would be rushed. I wanted to just get the book over with by the last 100 pages and think it should’ve been so much shorter. I never felt fully engaged and would set it aside after only 1 chapter to scroll on my phone instead and was rushing to finish it.
The guerrilla girl group mentioned in the synopsis felt more like an afterthought and I truly thought Plum would be more involved but then she wasn’t?! Missed opportunities everywhere.
It’s very feminist, the beauty industry is BS, most of the time but then it still continues to feed into it. For example, it’s all about how everybody is beautiful and dieting fails and your size shouldn’t stop you from living your life. But then it talks about “fckability” and how important waist trainers are/they're a must have and how you should wax off all your body hair? Like I’m afraid we’ve lost the plot, Walker.
It’s very feminist, the beauty industry is BS, most of the time but then it still continues to feed into it. For example, it’s all about how everybody is beautiful and dieting fails and your size shouldn’t stop you from living your life. But then it talks about “fckability” and how important waist trainers are/they're a must have and how you should wax off all your body hair? Like I’m afraid we’ve lost the plot, Walker.
Also very western/white feminist moment implying women who wear burkas or hijabs are inherently oppressed. There’s so much more nuance to that and some women wear hijabs/burkas for religious reasons, not because men force them to, so it felt a little lacking in intersectionality.
Despite the deep topics and addressing issues within society it lacked the nuance and depth desperately needed to make this kind of social commentary. I think it does make some important points on body acceptance and fighting the beauty/diet industries but it’s not anything new for me. All the things brought up are basic white woman feminism 101 and things I’ve learned from body positive non-fiction (Just Eat It by Laura Thomas, PhD- highly recommend). I think that made it less enjoyable because I wanted more of the guerrilla group action and we were only told about it after the fact, in bare minimum details, and I wanted more of that storyline.
Also not sure Satire is my thing? This is the second one I’ve read and I really didn’t like either one😭
Also not sure Satire is my thing? This is the second one I’ve read and I really didn’t like either one😭
I loooved Walker’s sophomore novel but if we’re going for a book on social commentary then I’m going to be extra critical about how it’s lack of intersectionality and it’s own issues of internalized misogyny.
I’d say if you want to read a book from Walker, read The Cherry Robbers instead, if I had read her debut first I probably never would’ve read TCR 🫠 It’s much better paced, has more complex well developed characters, and overall more entertaining/engaging.
I’d say if you want to read a book from Walker, read The Cherry Robbers instead, if I had read her debut first I probably never would’ve read TCR 🫠 It’s much better paced, has more complex well developed characters, and overall more entertaining/engaging.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Rape, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Violence, Fatphobia, and Sexual content
Moderate: Murder, Transphobia, Self harm, and Misogyny
Minor: Antisemitism and Islamophobia
limeykiss's review
5.0
Amazing and so necessary for every woman to read. Body-positive feminist collective and women righting the wrongs of the patriarchy? Yes please
erintowner's review
3.0
This one fell between 3 and 4 stars for me. It was published 7 years ago so the 2nd wave feminism could've used an update--for instance, why was a porn star killed?? Some of the characters felt 2D. But I loved thinking about women superseding our shitty judicial system.