Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - One Day

Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

One Day by David Nicholls

7 reviews

marissagero's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

2.0

I had to take a break from this book 50% of the way through because it put me in a rut. I’m glad I finished it, but it was hard to get through. I didn’t like that every chapter left off on a cliffhanger and the next chapter jumped a year into the future. I felt like a lot of cliffhangers were never fully “wrapped up”. I also kept finding myself thinking “I can tell a man wrote this book” every time Emma’s appearance was described.

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misswendy's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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nineinchnails's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny sad medium-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

4.5

this feels a lot like a couple of my all-time favourite books i've ever read which is probably part of why i enjoyed this so much but it isn't perfect. just to get this out of the way, it was annoyingly obvious that this was written by a man at parts - emma was mostly well written (i kept forgetting she was written by a man) but this showed a lot in the way that the other women were written in this book. just straight up caricatures. it also felt like it would've done numbers on tumblr (for the same reasons The Fault in Our Stars did) but despite all of that i really loved this novel. i loved the characters - they were complex and flawed but they felt so real and it made it even more frustrating to watch them constantly fuck up. the ending hit me like a truck and i'm so glad i picked this up. this is (almost) everything i wanted Talking at Night to be!

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idk_indigo's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-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

3.0

I'm trying to figure out how to word what I liked/didn't like about this book without saying just, "It's painfully obvious that this was written by a man" because, like, men can write good books too and in fairness, this was a good book. But it was painfully obvious that this was written by a man.

My favorite part of this book was definitely the format; I loved that it told a story from a singular day per year in the lives of Dex and Em. It was a really cool way to show how they were growing throughout the years as well as the development of their friendship and eventual relationship. Plus, in the end when we finally got a second day, it was really sweet.

I also appreciated that the characters were so ~~unlikeable~~ relatable. The inner monologues that the audience got to see was interesting, and also reflected who they were at the time as well as their flaws (eg., a persistent lack of confidence from Emma, the underlying addiction from Dexter). Seeing their inner thoughts, then seeing how they were with other friends or partners, then seeing how they were with each other, it was quite beautiful.

I loved the ending, despite it being

depressing as fuck. While I don't think it was "necessary," per se, as pointless deaths never are, I think it was what the book was about. It wasn't a comedy or even a romance, it was a tragedy. And it was oh-so-pointless, hence why it happens when they are finally happy.

What I didn't like so much was the writing style. I don't know how to explain it but it was almost exhausting at times. Overly wordy, plus the descriptions of things were weird/ridiculous, and especially the descriptions of the women Dexter dated. Suki Meadows was done so dirty. And Tilly. God I wanted to gag whenever Tilly was brought up. Men love to talk about how fat women are without actually using the word fat. Emma was forced to stumble into Tilly's humungous, gigantic, gargantuan bras because Tilly insisted on washing them in the sink. She has such colossal, enormous, elephantine (thank you, thesaurus.com) titties and dons them in boring beige bras that are just strewn all about the flat.

And ugh, Emma is such an anomaly, she does hate to talk about children and diapers and spit up and bottles. She hates watching her friends' kids, when the time comes she

hates watching Jasmine, too, ugh looking after a kid who's not hers

but also ugh it's all she's ever wanted. Anyways.

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