Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

60 reviews

documentno_is's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I went into Boy Parts largely blind and was better for it, the shock factor and depravity of the slow unveiling of the nature of our protagonist was more impactful than had I known what to expect. I hated every moment of being in this character's head and yet grapple with

the ways in which she can be both predator and victim.  Our main character is a master of manipulation and drowning in her own narcissism yet we see the multitude of ways she is failed by those around her, fueling her perversions.

In many ways reading this novel felt unbearable, both in the situations conjured up and the thought processes we are made privy to. This book felt cutting and revolting in the same ways

Lolita does

. My only complaint was the plot post London visit, for as shocking and fast paced as it was for the first 4/5ths of the story it puttered out

rather ungracefully to an unsatisfying ending of repetitions as is common of unveiling your central underlying "secret" too early on. We are left in liminal space of not knowing how much of our character's recollection is psychosis and how much is sociopathy, undoing much of the suspense of earlier on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Drug use, Death, Biphobia, Sexual violence, Blood, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Alcoholism, Vomit, Rape, Violence, Torture, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Dysphoria, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Classism, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Alcohol, and Abandonment

pantslint's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I wouldn't call this an enjoyable read, but it certainly is an engaging one. It's really accessible, with contemporary speech and pop culture references. And it's like watching a catastrophic train wreck happening in slow motion, on a foggy day,

until suddenly you get clocked in the head with a giant camera.

Irina is hilarious and a great unreliable narrator—she had me feeling like I was descending into a k hole with her, questioning her version of reality alongside everyone else around her.
I love how women are written here, how they (and ultimately, we) are both victims and perpetrators of misogyny and the male gaze.

Mom to Irina. Irina to Flo, Sera, and literally everyone else.

I wonder what the fuck I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat, you know? It's like... am I even doing this shit? Have I even fucking done anything?"

Irina's pretty privilege doesn't make her immune to gender based violence (the opposite, actually), but her literal crazy psychotic bitch behavior is just chalked up to 💅 hot girl shit. Men literally don't see her as dangerous in the same way that women find men dangerous.

Lots to ponder from this book—makes me want to explore other books with similar themes that other reviewers mentioned, like My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and Tampa by Alissa Nutting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Eating disorder

Minor: Animal death

gracesvcr's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

☆ ☆ 2.5 Stars
(spoiler-ish warning...maybe??)
There was a whole lot going on with this book and then there was a whole lot of nothing in the end. There were multiple times throughout the book where I questioned what the point was and where the point is. Every 2 chapters, I would wonder what the deeper meaning behind all the details were, but I would usually end up with no answers and continue on my questioning. It was difficult for me to sort out where this book was headed but not in the way of intrigue like other thrillers do for me where I am ravenously digging into the book wondering what the next page will entail. Instead, it was more in the ways of, "is this worth my time?" and, "is there a deeper meaning, because I hope there is at the end of all this?"
I felt like I got nothing out of this book and I was supposed to get something from the way that it had structured itself. It seemed like there was going to be this big plot twist or this big message on something. The little scenes and details and characters, they were all supposed to mean something, but they just...kind of didn't. I stress the meaning so much in my review because the book held itself with such importance, but maybe that was just Irina's narcism bleeding through the pages making it out to be bigger than it actually was.

This book was attempting to be something shocking, unseen, taboo, kinky, conforming to a niche group of people, and the like. I won't deny it these titles, but I think the execution was poor. It's almost ironic how similar this book is to Irina's photography business and personality. What it ended up as was a confusing mess with open plot lines and very serious topics (like gender, sex, BDSM, abuse, SA, rape, ect.) left inadequately communicated. I understand trying to touch on taboo topics like having an edgy character that is gay and overly sexual for a female. The thing is, the book really just did too much. Like I think it was trying to touch on every obscure, 'edgy', taboo topic of our generation. What Eliza Clark failed to do was come to a conclusion on all the topics. She touches on them, but she doesn't really form an arch or a story or a resolution with them. The structure and the plot just fell flat in many areas and with little to no resolution on these heavy/more taboo topics, it kind of loses any meaning she was trying to achieve.

The portrayal of the BDSM community and sadism, specifically, was so poorly written. With no aftercare, no communication, and little to no consent, it almost feeds into the stereotypes of BDSM rather than contribute to the community at all. The most important thing about portraying sadism or BDSM in general is the strong use of consent. This book is literally just rape and SA, which can be fine if it is done in the right way. To my understanding from this book, the men are just straight up extremely uncomfortable with Irina sexually, but for some reason, Eliza keeps them going right back to her. I think Eliza was trying to pull this bigmessage about how Irina has 'little to no consequences to her actions' and making it some massive thing that's supposed to elicit a response in the reader. To me, her point just fell flat and just miscommunicates kinky sex.
Also, I understand the main character is supposed to be a sociopath/narcissist that lacks any and all empathy and just wants to just hurt people/self sabotage, but I feel like it could have been written better. It was almost like Eliza Clark was confused on whether to make the sex consensual and then changed her mind middle way through, but kept attempting this ploy throughout the book.

For some of the highlights, the book didn't end up on my DNR list and didn't take me too long to read either. (I did find myself taking multiple breaks b/c the main character is just insufferable but she's supposed to be). Luckily, it also didn't kill my reading streak (which I'm very grateful for). There were a few good prose and quotes in this book, but at the end of the day, I feel like the book was just trying to accomplish too much in which it fell flat with me.

All this to say, I did not absolutely hate the book regardless of the low rating and criticisms that I have of it. I think it was interesting at the end of the day, but the goal of the book just didn't get achieved for me. Also, I just feel like the lines of consent blur a little too much and misunderstandings about taboo sex and sex in general could get misconstrued. But...maybe that was the point so I don't know. This book left me feeling confused.

(if there are any typos, I apologize. I am a stressed/burnt out nursing student just trying to mentally survive and it's 1 am. Thanks for reading <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Violence, Addiction, Cursing, Physical abuse, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Torture, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Gore, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Fatphobia, Biphobia, and Blood

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child death, Self harm, and Rape

kibiiiariii's review against another edition

dark emotional funny relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Took off 0.25 cus she killed the kitty

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Self harm, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Homophobia, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Ableism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Lesbophobia, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Grief, Rape, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

hades_hotline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

1.25

I don’t know how to feel

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Gore, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Torture, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Vomit

kotletka_polina's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I didn’t hate it but o certainly didn’t like it. There isn’t enough plot and I dislike it when the whole book is about “oh look she’s so edgy and horrible and does disgusting things she should be in jail for” and nothing else.
The main character is insufferable but that’s the whole point. I just wish it was done better, more epic/intense because I wasn’t encouraged to read further. 
Overall it was okay but boring to read and in the ending there’s zero conclusion or sort of outcome so you have to like philosophising about content afterwards to make the book make sense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Self harm, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Rape, Body horror, Death, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, and Toxic friendship

jesselopod's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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? Yes

4.0

Superb audiobook reading. I thought it was awful but then I realised that it was just the main character that was awful. This book is what I wanted my year of rest and relaxation to be. It read like Effie from Skins got into photography and got infinitely more mean. At first I thought this book was gratuitously excessively unhinged, but as I kept reading I found the concepts the book was exploring really compelling.

Although I was frustrated that it took as long as it did to drop the hook into the story surrounding “my boy”, I really loved the way the author handled the slide into unreliability as Irena’s reality dissolved around her, and I really enjoyed the emotional roller coaster the author put you through as a reader, how she played around with empathy the reader feels for her alongside her unforgivable cruelty. 

The ending was very abrupt. I like that there is no resolution to knowing what is and isn’t real, but I also felt the story didn’t really reach a conclusion either. With a tweaked ending I think I would have rated it much higher.

I viscerally hated reading much of this, it felt like watching a car crash, but I also didn’t want to stop listening to it. I don’t like horror as a genre, but I’m glad I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Murder, Rape, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault

pingi444's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Sexism, Murder, Rape, Drug use, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Physical abuse, Bullying, Fatphobia, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Torture, Sexual content, Stalking, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

magicalmegija's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Murder, Self harm, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Gore, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Rape, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Drug abuse, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Abortion, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Death, and Drug use

gia0203's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

1.0

I really didn’t click with this. the writing style grated on me, nothing much happened, and it felt like a vague array of concepts strung together loosely without any clear direction. penance was grounded and disturbing and beautiful and this was so underwhelming in comparison. 

it’s a shame because the main character is a northern queer woman and I’ve never read a book set where I live before. I really thought I was gonna love this but it was so repetitive - for much of the novel irina is drinking, smoking and taking drugs, or manipulating the people around her, or both at the same time. it didn’t really feel like anything was happening,  even when the narrative took a different turn. 

the most interesting parts of the novel, to me, where irina’s friend flo and eddie, but they were left with no conclusion either. the hook was so captivating, so engaging, but this is where my interest ended. as a concept this novel works very well but as an actual book I just could not connect to it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Eating disorder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Addiction, Body shaming, Classism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abortion