Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

48 reviews

jhump89's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Incest, Racism, Body shaming, Colonisation, Fatphobia, Grief, Misogyny, and Racial slurs

mysteryspouse's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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: Racism, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Grief, Pedophilia, Hate crime, Misogyny, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pregnancy, Rape, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, and Racial slurs

reedmorebooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring sad 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: Racial slurs, Racism, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Slavery, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

Minor: Body shaming, Death, War, and Colonisation

librarianjennifer's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Body shaming, and Domestic abuse

znvisser's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

The Color Purple has been one of my mom’s favourite movies for years, so it’s about time I watch it (and then the upcoming release too of course); but then I couldn’t without first reading the book. So I sourced a pretty Penguin edition and finally got started. 

This story does a lot of things and it does all of them really well. It’s full of complicated people, relationships and lives; of women gaining strength and wisdom with their years and some men trying (and some not); of exploration of faith and building community; and of (post-)colonial criticism slicing through it all. 

In advance, I was weary of its form - through letters, but it worked out surprisingly well. And I'm also becoming more and more of a sucker for stories in which the real love story is platonic. This is such a rich story, and I can’t wait to see how it translates into films. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Child abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Infertility, Addiction, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Alcohol, Body shaming, Death, and Drug abuse

bootrat's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

3.5

I had no idea this book was gay when I started reading it, and I can't believe I never knew! Half a star extra for that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Body shaming, Colonisation, Misogyny, Rape, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Incest, Racism, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use

caitlaird's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

4.5

Beautifully told, made me cry multiple times. An incredible story of a woman’s strength and resilience while also learning how to love herself, as well as learn how to trust and lean on  her community of women.
 A beautiful exploration of queer identity and love in a time where one might not have the knowledge or words for who they are. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racial slurs, Slavery, Racism, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Incest, Colonisation, and Adult/minor relationship

sweetheart_ok's review

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

As we follow Celie, we have a full view of life as the underdog, the person taken for granted, the overlooked and unloved. However, it becomes evident that this is the one person who is needed most, because this person is the mirror for everyone else. Questions of religion, gender, sexuality, and race are weaved into the journey just as they are in real life. The characters are real, vulnerable, strong, and human. A must read gor those who like to dig into the real (ugly) truth of human nature.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Rape, Abandonment, Child death, Alcohol, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Addiction, Racial slurs, War, and Adult/minor relationship

passionyoungwrites's review

adventurous challenging funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”

💜 

I know this story mostly follows two sisters, Celie and Nettie in early twentieth- century rural Georgia. Sisters who were separated as girls and sustained their relationship through distance and silence. Though, I feel this novel is so much more. 

💜 

This story is a story of hope, self- acceptance, accountability, resilience, redemption, and love - in many forms. 

Celie needing to love herself mostly, but after receiving love from another being - she realized that what she sought was never really an external thing. That she is the creator of her own experiences. 

Nettie, accepting that her life could be more than what she saw of others, ventured out, traveled and helped others. Reassuring her sister that distance would never be an issue. 

Mr. ______ (I hated the way that was written) finally saw that he was his own problem. He realized that he wasn’t the man he thought he was (hence his resentment and abuse of women) and his anger mostly hurt him the most. 

Shug, moving around so much because she wasn’t sure what she was looking for. And when she found it, she still found a way from it. Though, many of her problems stemmed from her family pushing her aside from early on. 

Harpo, finally realized that respect will take your relationships far. And that trying following the steps of his daddy in regards to treatment of women would only end him with a black eye. 

Sophia, standing her ground because ain’t no man gonna rule her. Not her husband, not the mayor.

And most of all, everybody realizing that love appears when you need it most. Shifting to fit the current circumstances, and sometimes evolving with time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

dragon_s_hoard's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Amazing character writing, this book is hard hitting and poignant. 
The epistolary style works well, but the fact that the plot is a “slice-of-life-over-a-lifetime” made it a little bit meandering for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Abandonment, Racism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Classism, Grief, Colonisation, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Police brutality, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Gaslighting, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Addiction