Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

13 reviews

edwardinsane's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.0

I’m really enjoyed this book! Some things to age well in regard to race. But overall I still really enjoyed the book.

I liked the end of the movie way more than in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Child death, Sexism, Death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Body shaming

Minor: Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, and Animal death

sammerp219's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Rape

lay_kone's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Racial slurs, Cannibalism, Dementia, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, and Cancer

celery's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Dementia, Sexual violence, Gore, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual harassment, Classism, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Hate crime, Medical content, Addiction, Cannibalism, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Murder, Body shaming, Cancer, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Vomit, War, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, Terminal illness, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Child death, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Infertility, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail

cwg's review

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

Unorganized Thoughts Below:

Read this Summer of 2022 when I was feeling dour. Cheered me up a bit.

Light-hearted reading. Easy to read, easy to love characters. 

Interesting narrative structure (past and present, narrative embedded within narrative). 

Product of its era, not just in the sense of it being set in 1920s and 1990s South (approximation) — do mind the TW’s if you’re wary — but if you can get past that, it’s a lovely story about community. 

It’s also got elements of “found family,” which, while I won’t give details, was easily my favorite segment within the book (of course it’s the relationship

between Idgie and Ruth

, but also the way the people of the Whistle Stop Cafe work as a family). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Hate crime, Body shaming, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cannibalism, Eating disorder, and Pregnancy

beccalove's review against another edition

dark lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

3.0

 **Spoilers ahead, but the book is from 50 years ago, so no apologies.** Woohoo, BOOK REVIEW!

First off, I want to open with the fact that this book is drowning in racism that is both relevant and not relevant to the historical context of part of the story and its location. There's a number of chapters that could be removed entirely and honestly seem to exist solely because Flagg wanted to say them herself (including WAYY too much comfort using the N word). It was written and published in the 1980's focused on small-town Alabama and the story bounces between there and several other time periods, mainly the 1930's. So for that reason alone, I don't recommend it. 

Secondly, while there are some beautiful sections with an explicit sapphic love story - those characters don't experience a happy ending and Fannie Flagg fell prey to the #buryyourgays trope despite being a lesbian herself. Idgie isn't there when Ruth dies and her death is treated with no emotion at all really. There's no mourning, no sharing of Idgie's partner of almost 2 decades (and love of her life), and that alone pissed me off enough to stop reading for 24 hours. After Ruth dies, their story is absent from the book for almost all of the final hundred pages and the final graveside mention just leaves so much to be desired. 

At the end of the day, there are some beautiful scenes and I'm thankful to have read a book from that period which has a queer love story so well accepted and respected by all the other characters in the book. However, the racism is inescapable and the lack of a good ending for our queer characters leaves me disappointed in the novel overall. 

⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Police brutality, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Death, Alcohol, and Body shaming

artstitute's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Cancer, Racism, Rape, Body shaming, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Cannibalism, Infidelity, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Dementia, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, and Mental illness

Minor: Pregnancy, Bullying, and Vomit

itsmackie's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs

Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, Cancer, Murder, Terminal illness, and Hate crime

Minor: Body shaming, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

ymziegler's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Cancer, and Racism

Moderate: Body shaming, Rape, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, and Death

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective sad fast-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

2.5

Kind of a nice book about

lesbians

but reeks of white savior tropes and is overall extremely racist--even the "good" characters seem to think of black people as lesser than in some way and never address their own racism. The older white characters actually think black people are meaner in the present... because they are mad... about racism. The charm of this book has definitely aged like milk unfortunately. 

Also, the main character finds her self worth by

joining an mlm instead of learning to love her body and unlearn her fatphobia?

Come on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Cancer, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Terminal illness, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts