Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

10 reviews

ameliasbooks's review against another edition

emotional funny sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Usually I'm having difficulties with child characters in stories. Very often I find their thoughts and dialogues unbelievable, but this wasn't the case here. I really enjoyed reading about the daily life and the adventures Darling and her friends went on. Maybe I would have preferred one or two characters less, because not all of them were portrayed really memorably.

The author did a good job in letting the place and the experiences the protagonists had coming alive on the page.

Can't really say which part I enjoyed more, the one that takes place in Zimbabwe or the one in the US. Both are similar important to the story, so I had no preference. 

The only criticism I have is that Bulawayo tries too hard to cover numerous themes and therefore can't really go into depth with most of them. This is a short book, so most of the covered topics stay quite on the surface and aren't explored enough. Which I would have been really interested in.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Addiction, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Colonisation, Fatphobia, Racism, and Dementia

Minor: War, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Eating disorder

hotkoolaidpotato's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Colonisation, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Abortion, Body shaming, Child abuse, and Classism

Minor: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Incest, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Infidelity

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

This is quite a provocative book.  It is narrated by Darling, who, throughout most of the book, is a tween living in a Zimbabwe slum in the 2000s, having been displaced from her modest home by paramilitary violence.  She and her friends process their reality through play and antics, which include the game “Find bin Laden,” a reenactment of a community member’s murder, and a near-attempt at a coat hanger abortion.  When Darling moves in with her aunt in America, she discovers that many cultural differences cannot be translated and yearns for her beloved homeland, to which she cannot return, lest she be trapped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Racism, Animal death, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Medical trauma, Incest, Grief, Xenophobia, Murder, Infidelity, Colonisation, Abortion, Rape, Police brutality, Violence, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, and Alcoholism

Minor: Transphobia, Abandonment, Suicide, Child death, Bullying, and Death of parent

feebles640's review against another edition

challenging dark funny sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Cursing, Classism, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Incest, Racism, Abortion, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, Fatphobia, and Deportation

Minor: Mass/school shootings

darby15's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Excrement, Fatphobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Gore, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, and Eating disorder

Moderate: War, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Genocide, Incest, Rape, Suicide, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, and Mass/school shootings

luananki's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

i fell in love with darling the minute i met her. i loved reading her thoughts on everything that was happening around her and how she took it in. 
good read, as long as you keep the trigger warnings in mind, i’m glad i picked it up

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Abortion

Minor: Child death and Fatphobia

literaryliaisons's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Colonisation, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Excrement, Fatphobia, Grief, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal death, Death, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Rape, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Abortion, Addiction, Body shaming, and Gun violence

Minor: Mass/school shootings

maureen's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

struggled to finish this. my interested was sparked at the start but it never really clicked for me, and then it started to go downhill unfortunately

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Rape

mmatti300's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

I read this book for school, so it's a little difficult for me to fully rate this book as I think I may have enjoyed certain pieces of it more if I wasn't coming at it from a purely analytical standpoint. At first, the lack of quotation marks bothered me as it seemed to make the story a little bit more confusing than it needed to be, but I actually think this was a really interesting choice by Bulawayo to make the text read more like an oration than a novel. I do think it was an extremely thought provoking and enriching text and am excited to discuss it with my class as I think they will provide some interesting perspectives. However, I felt like Bulawayo almost did too much for how short the novel was. This book is only 292 pages, with relatively big font, and yet she tackles:

coat hanger abortions, AIDS, ineffectiveness of NGOs, Starvation, class conflict post decolonization, anorexia in America, overeating in America (in a way that I found almost extremely fat phobic/ said in a way that was unnecessarily derogative), difficulty of immigration, depression, joining the army, family asking for money, porn addictions from a young age, teen angst, the list goes on

This was probably not actually spoilers, but just in case. I think that these were important things to tackle, especially in the context of immigration and Zimababwean culture, but it also felt way too rushed for me and like I didn't get a second to process what she was saying before another thing came at me. Perhaps this was on purpose, but it really took me out of the story and made me really hate the main character, Darling, who we want to connect with and love at least in the beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Terminal illness, Abortion, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Racism, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Islamophobia, Grief, Gun violence, Genocide, Death of parent, Death, and Animal death

Minor: Fatphobia

cclardo's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Animal death

Minor: Death, Suicide, Mental illness, and Child death