Scan barcode
acarasotti's review against another edition
Graphic: Ableism, Sexual violence, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Homophobia, and Racism
easybakeoven's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Misogyny, and Classism
Moderate: Miscarriage, Violence, Vomit, and Blood
Minor: Animal death and Homophobia
vivica's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Sexual content and Ableism
Moderate: Body shaming, Blood, Addiction, Alcohol, Misogyny, Grief, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Drug use, Death, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Vomit
ardour's review against another edition
got up to the story “slumming” and felt so gross to keep humouring her ~*problematic narrators*~ that i literally had to stop.
‘Lapvona’ was so much better & finds many other ways to do abject—this book made it glaringly obvious that she has trouble restraining her own obsession with others’ weight & condescending view of fat people when she’s creating new characters. A book of short stories coming back to these attitudes again and again with new and supposedly different characters became kind of like a bad joke to me
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Ableism, and Xenophobia
angel_kiiss's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moshfegh really rides the line between raw and offensive, and at some points may cross it. I find myself wondering if she rides it a little too closely wherein it’s no longer edgy and turns mean spirited.
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Ableism
Moderate: Excrement
verynicebook's review against another edition
4.25
Moderate: Fatphobia, Ableism, and Racism
bananabeard812's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Ableism, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, and Self harm
madelonpaige's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
2.75
Graphic: Body shaming, Drug use, Fatphobia, and Ableism
emory's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I was puzzled reading this about all the positive reviews I had seen of it. Every story seemed a pointless excuse for Moshfegh to describe something disgusting, insult a random fat side character, and call somebody r*tarded. A few of the later stories, such as Slumming, The Beach Boy, and A Better Place were (comparatively) charming and driven, but the abrupt endings in the latter of these two were discouraging.
The only saving grace I could find for these stories was that Moshfegh is clearly creative in thinking of vignettes of different shades of upsetting people. However, I don't feel as if her writing was strong enough to carry them. Each sentence was short and blunt. The simple sentences lent themselves to the subject matter I suppose, but it was not an artful or particularly nice reading experience. It read more like the begrudging English assignment of a super senior than that of a critically acclaimed author. Not to mention none of her characters were distinguishable from one another. All spoke with the same voice. The most discription anything received were fat characters that Moshfegh seemed to delight in calling disgusting and horrible. And anytime someone from a minority was mentioned, there was some weird aside that the narrator needed to have.
The idea of challenging what the purpose of fiction is and the role of a main character is an intriguing prospect, and this, along with the few stories that stood out to me as genuine, are the reason I'm giving this a higher rating than 0 or 1. But there's no skill or point behind it, to me, other than to shock and disgust. Most of these stories had nothing to say. To make something realistic in its unappetizing circumstances means nothing when you're doing the same trick over and over again. "It's so bad here, what if there were something better? Well, there's not." Cool!
And unfortunately there's not even a single story that's about aliens.
Graphic: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Excrement, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Vomit, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, and Death
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Animal death, Antisemitism, and Sexual assault
Unbelievably terrible descriptions of fat people throughout for no reason. Additionally any time a main character meets a person who is not white or straight, they are very weird about it.faduma's review against another edition
- 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
0.5
Graphic: Fatphobia, Stalking, Ableism, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Body shaming, and Bullying