Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

10 reviews

samgray's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I teared up when Ruthie told her mom about losing Sarah 😭 very emotional. Makes me want to research more about Amanda Peters and know what parts of her world intersect with her fiction 🧡

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Fatphobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent

emelynreads's review

emotional sad slow-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

Heartbreakingly beautiful. Like the author's short story collection, this novel explores the pervasive effects of colonialism on present day, family dynamics, and grief. 

Some of the characters were so frustrating to read through (aka Norma's mother) that I didn't connect with the story as much as I wanted to. But the payoff was worth it, and I like the dual narrative, and how the twist is unveiled. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Fatphobia

schausjk's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-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

3.0

Emotional at times with some well-written moments, but also deeply predictable. The book sacrifices much of its tension and pacing in an attempt to lean into being more character driven, but even then it sometimes feels more like outlines of lives rather than fully fleshed out characters. This book would have benefitted from being longer and adding more depth to some of its themes.

As a side note, the repeated casual fatphobia was super irritating. Every single time the author brings up a character's weight, it's always to either make fat characters the butt of a joke or with implications that the fat characters are disgusting or have let themselves go (sometimes it's both!).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Fatphobia, Gun violence, and Pregnancy

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fatphobia

kappafrog's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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

3.75

This is a hard book to review. I was compelled to keep reading because I felt completely drawn in to the tragedies and traumas that the characters were facing, and needed to see how it all resolved. I was moved to tears at times, especially at the end. At the same time, the characters went through so much trauma that I almost felt voyeuristic at times. I kept going because I knew from the first chapter there was hope, but it was pretty brutal seeing everything that especially Joe's family went through.

This story is a heartbreaking look at the effect the Sixties Scoop had on Indigenous people in Canada. While this wasn't exactly like the typical Sixties Scoop - where the taking of children was sanctioned by child welfare services - it explored how much that sort of forced interracial adoption fractured family and individual identities. It's estimated that 20,000 Indigenous children were forcibly relocated during the Scoop, so the emotions that Ruthie and her family went through in this book are far from unique.

At times I wondered why we were spending so much time with Joe. His story was interesting to read, but I finished the book with so many unanswered questions about the fallout with Norma

/Ruthie

and her family that I wish we could have spent some more time with her perspective at the end. What we did get with her at that point was great though and very healing.

That scene towards the end where all the siblings are laughing together was so special.

The book could have dug a little deeper on a few of its themes.

Aunt June didn't exactly get off easy, as Norma did articulate to her what I'd been thinking the whole time, but the book could have explored a little more her position as a white queer person - on the one hand oppressed, and on the other hand, an enabler of another's oppression. She did so much damage by keeping that secret - poor Norma got so twisted up by all the gaslighting, and no one was ever fully held accountable for it, though the novel was still clear about how awful it was and the negative effects it had. I would have liked to see some more anger expressed towards Norma's mother, and to have seen more of her original family's reactions to learning why Ruthie had been taken from them.

The above are all just things I wish we could have seen more of. I do have one criticism of the book aside from that though. I really didn't like how Norma's mother Lenore played into stereotypes about manipulative people with migraines. Her migraines were her key emotional manipulation tactic, and I really didn't appreciate that. While it's something that could certainly happen, one of the reasons that migraine isn't taken seriously as the massively debilitating disease it is is that people see it as something women fake to get out of things they don't want to do. There's plenty of research showing that. So, as someone whose life has been badly affected by chronic migraine (and OCD, which Norma's mother was also possibly implied to have), I didn't love that the author used this trope. It wasn't a dealbreaker, since it was technically plausible (migraine can be triggered by emotional upset), and the main characters in the novel were suffering from so many worse societal ills, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book. It is a heavy read, but it really shines in moments like the descriptions of the landscape and people's connections to it and Joe's memories of his sister. It provided insights into a way of life unknown to most people (including me) by exploring the social and economic realities of life for itinerant Indigenous berry pickers in Canada and Maine. While there were things I would have liked to see it explore more, it was a fantastic debut, and I look forward to seeing more from this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Cursing, Genocide, Homophobia, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Vomit

reaganalexis's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fatphobia

10inspace's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Hell of a read. Heartache and happiness and everything human in between. 

Bummer that the author found endless ways to describe characters as fat without being relevant in any way whatsoever to the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

brdwilliams's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, and Racism

elisahvdb's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was really liking the first third of this but the "foreshadowing" (aka, the plot reveal which was clear as day coming) wore on too long. I lost interest in the mystery of this because it was so obviously plotted. I stuck it out to see how the reunion would go (if it ever happened) but overall thought this novel was good, but nothing memorable or outstanding. If heavy hinting at a mystery doesn't bother you, I do encourage you to check out this book.

I liked what it had to say about how families being separated destroys the family from inside and out, but wished that there was more discussion about how Norma's culture being taken from her affected her and her sense of self. She wondered about things, but I think it would have been more powerful had there been a stronger presentation here of how it changed her trajectory. Joe was an interesting character because we saw how the tragedies in his family affected him. The before and after. How grief and especially anger derailed his future and caused him and his loved ones pain. And the resolution at the end was even more bittersweet because we saw the whole picture. But who would Ruthie have been? What did being Norma cost her?

The cover is absolutely stunning. Not sure the title and cover accurately represent the book's plot but I love it anyways.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Terminal illness, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Colonisation

Minor: Fatphobia

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