Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Bridge to Terabithia

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

37 reviews

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad fast-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

3.0

I enjoyed reading most of the book. It's a short and quick read, so there is not much time to flesh out all characters equally. But I really liked the two protagonist. It was easy to care for them and I loved their friendship a lot.
There are some really questionable things in the book though, mostly due to its age, I guess. So I wouldn't really recommend it for children these days. The way fat shaming is used, or child abuse is handled, are harmful in my opinion.
I also didn't love the ending, I've definitely seen better examples of handling this topic. But it did make me emotional (although I saw it coming because the movie makes people sad).

Content Warnings

wolfiegrrrl's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.0

Bridge to Terabithia is a story about two kids bullying everyone they don't like, choosing fat people as their prime target. For the majority of the book, I kept hoping that this was going to be part of their character development, but the resolution is weak. Instead of learning to actually care about other people's feelings, they only give characters who are suffering other hardships a pass while continuing to body shame the characters they haven't deemed worthy of their kindness. Sympathy for people suffering is of course a good message, but "fat people don't deserve sympathy unless they're suffering" is just not right.

The grandest statement the author makes is that boys can like drawing and girls can wear pants. That's weak feminism even for the time because she still actively cuts down fat women and girls at every opportunity. It's excessive and unnecessary. Furthermore, she sends a bad message to victims of child abuse. This book's advice to kids suffering from an abusive home life is to "not mix personal life with school life" because "everyone will laugh at you and think you betrayed your parents" and "if your parents beat you up, get over it! it's not a big deal! it happens to everyone!"

This book had promise to it. There's a story in there about Jess learning to be more confident and processing his fears, then losing his friend and having to process that grief. Maybe there's even a story in there about learning to understand other people as well as yourself, but it's so fumbled by the attitudes of the author and the time period it was written in. As it stands, the ending is the most well-written part of this book.

Content Warnings

alyssakaluf's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

serena_hien's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

nikexistiertnik's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.75

what can i say, i knew i'd be crying in the end.
all the body-shaming made the book unenjoyable at times, and it's pretty clear from the beginnin that leslie fits perfectly into the manic pixie dream girl trope.
hated the part about god and jesus, how the fck is that beautiful; i wish leslie would've elaborated a bit, because WHAT?
i didn't expect there to be narnia references, but now i am even more excited to finally read it, it's sitting on my shelf, impatiently waiting for me to pick it up.

Content Warnings