A review by angelbabe_cj
Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

The book overall and the writing is excellent. It is also very intense. One you might decide to dip in and out of rather than read back to back. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Child death, Rape, Infertility, Car accident, Sexual content, and Racism

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Car accident, Classism, Gore, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Death, and Gun violence

Not all warnings apply to all stories in the collection. I've done my best below to list what is included in each story. I did make notes as I read but I know I missed some things.

I will follow you: pedophilia, sexual abuse, confinement, panic attacks/disorders Water, All its weight: child abandonment The Mark of Cain: pregnancy, infidelity, child abuse, sexual violence Difficult women: sexism FLORIDA: eating disorders, sexual content, racism, classism La Negra Blanca: sexual content, stalking, explicit rape, violence, racism, racial slurs Baby Arm: sex, violence How: brief violence, alcoholism Requiem for a Glass Heart: sexual content, infidelity, stalking? body horror? In the Event of my Father's Death: sexual content, infidelity Break all the way down: child abandonment, explicit child death, car accident, grief, infidelity, physical violence, sexual violence Bad priest: sexual content, religious trauma Open marriage: sexism, toxic relationship? A pat: classism, Best Features: fatphobia (some internalised), sexual content Bone Density: sexual content, infidelity I am a knife: blood, guns, animal death, miscarriage, birth, medical trauma, pregnancy, alcohol, car accident, gore The Sacrifice of Darkness: suicide, death, bullying, death of parent Noble Things: war, injury, medical content, gaslighting?, sexual content, toxic familial relationship Strange Gods: explicit rape, explicit child loss, sexism, racism, medical trauma, blood, hunting/guns, misogyny, infertility?, gaslighting