Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

2 reviews

sakisreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-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

3.5

This is my first time reading Roxane Gay (late to the game, I know) and gosh, this collection was not an easy read! The stories below felt the most memorable for me:

‘I Will Follow You’ doesn’t need many words to be hard-hitting. Content warnings for this one (and every story after) are included below. Fuck Mr. Peters 😫

‘Florida’ was great fun. A bit fucked up, definitely, but also real. I could picture every one of these characters 🫠

‘How’ was so interesting. How life can feel so trivial, yet people can be going through things you just never know about! 😳

Loved Hanna and Laura’s little love story and how they managed to get away with Anna, Logan and the baby ✨

‘Pilgrim’ was so interesting, because it feels taboo to talk about the heartbreak of losing a child. This felt sharp and succinct 🥲 Wholeheartedly heartbreaking and yet the lack of feeling was clearly so intentional!

‘Glass’ was familial and so messy. Loved that 🙊

All in all, I’m rating this collection 3.5 out of 5 stars. I’m looking forward to exploring more of Gay’s works ✨ 

Content warnings included as usual below.

Thank you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Death, Infertility, and Sexual violence

angelbabe_cj's review against another edition

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