Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

4 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

relaxing sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

Read this as part of my book club’s March pick. It wasn’t on my TBR before and I didn’t know much about it going in. 

What I liked:
•Short and quick read

•Interesting looks at loss and grief

•I enjoyed the second story much more which is why I gave it 3 ⭐️s

•Even though “Moonlight Shadow” was shorter I somehow felt more emotion and connection with those characters than with the characters of the “Kitchen” novella
•I finished it 😂

What I didn’t like:
•Characters felt one dimensional and writing was just okay; I felt bored at times and found myself speed reading the last 30 pages of Kitchen
•Transphobic af-lots of misgendering and deadnaming-
Eriko is a trans woman and her son described her life story by saying that after her wife died she asked herself “what do I do now?I want to be cheerfully uplifted so I’ll become a woman” as if that’s something you just decide on a whim?!
•Also her son outed her to the MC upon the first time they meet. Throughout the book they make jokes at Eriko’s expense where they continue to misgender her. I’m not sure if this was intentional by the author or if it’s a translation issue but the trans rep is poorly portrayed.

•Won’t be a memorable read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Hate crime, Outing, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexism and Body shaming

Minor: Deadnaming

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Cursing, Murder, Animal death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Car accident, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Body shaming

nabila99's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Hate crime, Murder, and Car accident

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, and Stalking

freckled_frog_boi's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

1.75

I loved the writing style and how she described simple moments was absolutely delicious to read. However, as a trans person, the writing surrounding trans characters was horrible and openly transphobic. The characters love their friends who are trans women but out them, and call them men, make jokes about them being masculine, and are constantly reminding themselves and others that they are still men. The trans characters themselves are beautiful and I wished they were treated better. Also, there is a weird phenomenon where transness is treated like mental decline when faced with grief(?) which was weird and unsettling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

Moderate: Fatphobia, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcoholism