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kylieqrada's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Chronic illness, Excrement, and Death of parent
Moderate: Fatphobia and Mental illness
taylormoore's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Excrement, Death of parent, Medical trauma, and Medical content
Moderate: Fatphobia and Sexual content
jmarquette's review against another edition
Graphic: Excrement
Minor: Body shaming and Fatphobia
mdavis26's review against another edition
3.75
Minor: Excrement, Grief, Medical content, Vomit, Cursing, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Blood
ladythana's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Sexual content, Grief, Vomit, Medical content, Cursing, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Excrement, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Fatphobia and Body shaming
sasstronaut's review against another edition
1.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Excrement, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Cursing, Medical content, and Sexual content
zarap's review
Graphic: Fatphobia, Excrement, and Grief
skudiklier's review against another edition
3.25
But I liked it less and less the longer it went on. A lot of the humor felt repetitive--like, I can only read so much about making fun of the all the men she's been with before I get tired of it. By the end I was pretty uninterested and just waiting for it to be over.
I did read the first edition, and she re-ordered the essays for the later editions. Maybe the new order would have kept my interest more. But idk, I just felt like some of the essays were doing/saying the same things as previous ones, and it wasn't funny enough for that to be worth it.
Also there were some things that have not aged well--lots of fatphobia and internalized fatphobia, as well as internalized sexism. Also some things about the environment that I don't feel like she would say ten years later--at least, I hope not.
Anyway I'm giving this four stars because I did like it for a while, and I'm trying not to let my "meh" feelings at the end change my whole thoughts on the book. I don't think I'd recommend it, but maybe I'd try reading some of her later books.
Update: I changed this to 3.25 stars. I was trying to not let the parts I didn't like affect my rating too much, but the more time passes the less I think I'd recommend this. I did like a couple essays and I didn't hate this book or anything, but I no longer think I'd try reading some of her later books even. Just not for me.
Graphic: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Sexism, Fatphobia, Child abuse, Cursing, and Excrement
Moderate: Classism, Drug use, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Eating disorder, Racism, Self harm, Medical content, Ableism, Blood, Sexual content, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, and Violence
graphic: parentification, diet culture, internalized fatphobia, internalized sexismabbie_'s review
3.25
I know Irby also later came out as bisexual, and I'm not sure where she was in her journey when she wrote this, but there's some talk of wanting to 'decide to like women from now on' after bad experiences with men, which didn't sit right with me. Obviously now I know Irby is actually bisexual, but from what I can gather in this collection, she was still identifying (publicly) as straight. Hopefully the whole rhetoric of 'choosing to like women because men are trash' thing is also something we've left behind in 2013, and obviously Irby came to terms with her sexuality later on which is great!
But overall, a good collection that made me exhale through my nose many times and even laugh out loud once or twice! Will definitely read her later collections too.
Graphic: Chronic illness and Excrement
sophie_paterson's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Excrement