Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold

6 reviews

coris's review

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Fatphobia

Moderate: Rape

Two instances of dubious consent.

blusocket's review

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Bujold's preoccupation with the sympathetic rapist is both a testament to her ambition and compassion as a writer and can come across as so hyper specific as to water down the attempted commentary on sexual violence. That said, this book was incredibly readable--the stakes were high, the dramatic irony was delicious, the psychology was both melodramatic and frantically compelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Torture

Moderate: Fatphobia

mizelse's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Violence, Medical content, Eating disorder, Torture, Self harm, Gore, Fatphobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Moderate: Trafficking, Sexual harassment, Death, Dysphoria, Ableism, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, and Confinement

crownoflaurel's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

Always the hardest to reread, but worth it for the discovery of Mark's self and the opportunity for an outside view of Miles.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Body horror

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Torture, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Slavery

emmajuettner's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Torture

Moderate: Fatphobia, Transphobia, and Homophobia

This book has a whole lot of really difficult stuff in it, and some of it made me question whether to continue reading the series. I will say that if rape or child abuse is an especially sensitive subject, you should know that there is a scene where

a viewpoint character basically attempts to rape a child

, and also

slightly less detailed descriptions of the same viewpoint character, as a child, being raped by a father figure as a punishment

. Related to eating disorders,

the same character was abused by having food withheld/being forced to eat, both in his childhood and in a torture scene later in the book, and generally has an extremely unhealthy relationship with food

. There's a lot of other disturbing stuff in here that I've marked as content warnings but I think those scenes require a more specific warning because they are so intense.

rigormorphis's review against another edition

5.0

Reread September 2018: Still love this book, still would never recommend it without EMPHATIC warnings.

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Original review:

I loved this book to pieces but I almost couldn't finish it at a couple points because it hit a few of my triggers so hard. On top of the usual Vorkosigan Saga warnings (rape, anti-intersex sentiment/dehumanization of intersex people, inconsistent treatment of disabled characters, etc.) it needs warnings for AT THE LEAST: disordered eating (binge eating specifically), fat hate, force-feeding, torture, severe dissociation resulting from torture, CSA, and attempted rape perpetrated by a POV character.

That makes it sound like a brutal read, and it is, especially towards the end. But it's also the story of a severely traumatized young man wandering around collecting a family and building an identity of his own for the first time in his life. Like I said, I really love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Torture, Mental illness, and Rape

Moderate: Ableism and Suicidal thoughts