Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

18 reviews

lilgriff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Addiction, Suicide, and Stalking

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, and Grief

Minor: Misogyny, Gore, Miscarriage, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Cancer

jourdanicus's review against another edition

funny sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Funny. Beyond me in some ways but then maybe not so much if I don't overthink it. I almost didn't like this one because Greta is written so well as an unlikeable character... But there's still a lot about her with which to sympathize.

In hindsight the characters and writing style remind me of Ottessa Moshfegh's novels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Drug use

Minor: Lesbophobia, Addiction, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

katerina_l's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Excrement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Infidelity, Misogyny, Drug use, Body shaming, Classism, Death of parent, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Grief, Gore, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Stalking, Medical content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Sexual harassment

signeskov's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Suicide, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, Biphobia, and Lesbophobia

aggie2010's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicide, Homophobia, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, and Infidelity

Minor: Drug use

the_lesbrarian's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicide, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Addiction, Grief, Violence, Animal death, Death, and Abandonment

silver_lining_in_a_book's review against another edition

dark funny slow-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

1.0

 

Greta considered her own behaviour around red flags. Her habit was not to ignore them so much as to ingest them, a somewhat laborious mental production that involved placing them in a stockpot with butter, herbs, and mirepoix; cooking over low heat without browning; adding red meat, additional red flags, a jug of red wine; and voilà, four hours at a lazy simmer later, an extremely rich red-flag stew that she forked into her mouth every day like a fucking moron, sometimes for years on end.

Oh no... I hate to do this but I should have seen the signs when in the first few pages we were making horribly racist comments (particularly about Japanese and Chinese people), making fun of anorexics (trigger warnings would have been appreciated) and strangely glamorising suicide.

I had such high expectations for this book! It had so much potential when it came to humorously discussing some very morbid and taboo topics but instead, it turned into a very uncomfortable semi-erotic, semi-thriller novel. It failed at the thrill, it failed at the romance, it failed at the eroticism and it did not even begin the discussion of important topics like relationships, infidelity, suicide, depression, therapy and trauma.

I am not sure I have ever given a book 1 star, but there is a first time for everything and I believe it is well deserved in this case. The 1 star is being awarded solely to the beautiful US cover and its designer; it's the only thing Big Swiss has going for it. I am so incredibly thankful I decided to check this out of the library because I would have probably torn the sex-scene pages out if it were my own copy... they were so unpleasant to read. Not to mention that I am generally fine with erotic scenes! I will never be able to get the image of a slightly moist origami rose between a woman's peach-fuzz-covered legs out of my head. Thank you, Jen Beagin, for making me hate both origami and peaches now (though the latter was ruined by Call Me By Your Name a while ago).

Anyway, I somewhat regret pushing through this sorry excuse for literature, but at least I can confidently say that it sucked and I truly truly TRULY do not understand the hype here... how many trees have been sacrificed for this exactly? I would like to petition for their restoration; they didn't deserve this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Excrement, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Racism, Blood, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Sexism, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Addiction, Suicide, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Mental illness, Death, Cursing, Violence, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

hannahgjenson's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

aaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHH this was SO good! So many juicy characters. I loved how the house was basically a character unto itself. So many hilarious and absurd details were built into that house like the bee hive and the bedroom fire pit that had to be tended every three hours or you'd get bombed by smoke. Beagin's writing style was so great- I really appreciated the way she zoomed in on minute details about a person or a place and extrapolated from there through Greta. I am now dying to become a sex therapy transcriptionist and move to Hudson and run around amongst all these crazy, wacky people causing drama. This book did have so many laughs and insane plot lines and devices, but was really centered around deep aching and trauma, and it all just sung together. I found so much of myself in these people living a life largely unlike my own, and that is such a good feeling in a book. What a great read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual content, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty

tjasmz's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Graphic: Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Cursing, Medical trauma, Grief, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Self harm, Stalking, Blood, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

dixiecarroll's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I’m trying to figure out why this has such a low rating and quite simply I cannot find a reason to rate this under 5 stars. Perfect? I’m unsure, but it was deeply deranged, laugh out loud funny, and a wild adventure. I loved it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Infidelity, Blood, Rape, Excrement, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Physical abuse, Self harm, Addiction, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gore, Misogyny, and Stalking