Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Castle in the Air

Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

19 reviews

mirandaleighhhh's review against another edition

I wasn’t expecting this to be great based on the cover of the copy I got from the library, but I was looking forward to another whimsical palette cleanser with the second installment. I’m so disappointed ☹️

There is excessive fat shaming (I mean really so much I was rolling my eyes), and the depiction of Arab culture and characterizations were racist. I’m confused that there aren’t more reviews discussing this. I skimmed through the rest to find insane shit about killing cats (apparently Sophie is in this and is a cat) and what appears to be human trafficking of his relatives who bare the brunt of the fat shaming??????????? ….?

I don’t care that this came out in the 90’s, it made me feel gross and honestly angry and it’s not worth my time. And what’s more is the story is so boring! I do not understand why she wrote this at all.

I am going to attempt to read House of Many Ways since I already got it from the library, but it’s really all soured for me now

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lakinglaze's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

It was easier to follow the plot in this book than in Howl’s Moving Castle and I rather enjoyed it overall, but I didn’t really like Abdullah unfortunately. On to the last book in the series.

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littlefoot10's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

2.0

I honestly don't even know what to say about this book.

The only redeeming qualities of this book was having Sophie, Howl and others from the previous book within these pages.

I couldn't stand Abdullah. He is just freaking swarmy. He comes off as a sleezeball because of all the positive affirmations he gives to everyone knowing he's being facetious about it the entire time.

The body shaming within this book was on another level. It was utterly ridiculous. The nieces, were brought in TWICE to be made fun of for their size. There are absolutely other ways to say you aren't attracted to someone. But to say that these two are gobbling with fat shaking is not it at all.

I tried to stay in the mind set that this book was written in the early 90's when beauty standards were ALL about being as thin and model like as possible. For a woman writer to be so callous towards these characters seems irresponsible towards young readers.

More body shaming towards the bartender where Abdullah finds the soldier. I just don't understand how every female character from this book is looked down upon if she is not thin and beautiful.

And then the writer moves on to discussing drowning cats because they are evil. I just don't understand. You and write about ANYTHING. This is a fantasy story so you could even say that in this specific culture the citizens believe cats are consorts with witches or djinn or even just see as bad luck. But to literally say it's okay to kick them and drown them if you even lay eyes on a cat is fucking insane to me. No accountability towards the readers that could be young reading these works.

Can you believe that the magic carpet wouldn't take Lettie along with Sophie and Abdullah because she's 'fat' and pregnant. Like it's a fucking magic carpet....

So in this fantasy world, even growing a baby doesn't give you any grace with this author because you have gained weight to grow this person inside of you... so because you're large for whatever reason you're not 'valued as a woman' because you've gained weight. It's fucking mind-blowing.

The only reason this book has two stars is because of the characters from Howls Moving Castle. Otherwise this novel is trash. Not sorry.

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alexklop's review against another edition

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1 star. DNF at 28%. Chapter 7

Ughh this is so unfortunate. Not only did this book perpetuate harmful stereotypes of Arab and MENA (Middle Eastern / North African) people but as well was excruciatingly boring. After reading Howls Moving Castle I was excited a sense of whimsy and adventure and unfortunately this story was what I got instead…

It felt like the writing style was completely different than the previous book, and after reading other reviews, someone said it perfectly that this book sounded like it was written by a completely different author from book 1.

I plan to attempt book 3 as they don’t seem to connect whatsoever; I’m just hoping it’s better than this book.

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ac_anemon's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

it’s good, it’s repetitive in the way that all the ‘moving castle’ books are in that all the actions the character take have them going around in circles until it reaches a boiling point and every little detail becomes relevant in this grand scheme. there’s some fatphobia i can’t let go and some, we’ll say, questionable depictions of other cultures (don’t hear characters being described as yellow these days). overall, pretty good!

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turtleghost's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

Cute, funny and romantic follow-up to Howl's Moving Castle

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pocketspoon's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

The author clearly had fun turning arabian-nights-like tales on their heads a bit, and it is definitely fun and clever in some ways. However, there is a lot here that is really problematic, not least of all the general and persistent misogyny of the main character. I'm afraid that learning to love one smart, capable woman doesn't make him not sexist.

In the very last pages he is giving away his (previously extensively fat-shamed) relatives as chattel to the villain. But it's okay, because he's handsome and actually wants them because they're not uncooperative like the kidnapped princesses, so they're into it?!
I also find it annoying that the Howl's Moving Castle characters all have babies in this book, as if that's the only possible progression of a young woman's life/story.

You could explain some of this away as "satire, not endorsement" but this is a kids' book, and kids don't get sattire; they're going to see women being constantly compared to each other (and generally criticized and found wanting) by the male protagonist, who is pretty unlikeable and shitty, but is still somehow the hero of the story.

He rides in and attaches himself to the escape plan the princesses were already working on, and then one of them has to agree to marry a slimeball just so he won't eat them out, and the men get all the credit for the rescue.

And a bunch of other toxic stuff.

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