Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Głód. Pamiętnik (mojego) ciała by Roxane Gay

7 reviews

xabbeylongx's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

2.0

SPOILERS AHEAD

Book Review: 

This is my second attempt at reading Gay’s memoir, and I finally finished it, this time. There are quite a lot of trigger warnings, so if you’re likely to become affected, this book isn’t for you. 

I don’t like to criticise memoir’s, as I don’t think it’s right; someone has poured their heart out, and if you’re talking about the content the memoir, it can get really personal. So, I’m going to start off by saying that I really liked this book because it was so personal, and Gay bared all by writing it. It has a lot of content that others would maybe try and hide, as she did for all those years, but I really like how she now tells us about it. Her character growth is insane, and I love reading about it. 

Second of all, I’d like to say this book is so thorough, so in depth, and it’s nice to read a memoir so realistic. I, too, struggle with my weight, and it’s so incredibly refreshing to read about someone with similar-ish struggles to me. It’s validating! Reading about everything that has happened to her, every personal hell she’s had to deal with… I mean, there is a lot I cannot comment on or even begin to understand. However, with regards to the weight prejudice and the eating disorder, I really like how it’s not sugar-coated, and I liked reading it from someone else’s POV. 

I’d say that, personally for me, some of the writing itself was a bit repetitive. I liked the small chapters that were put in, but sometimes, they weren’t necessary. A lot of the time I was reading over it, and I was thinking that I had already read it, but it was actually a different part. It also had a bit of a mismatched order, in my opinion, but I am a stickler for chronological memoirs, so that’s just my preference. It was quite a good read though, even if I found it did take me a while to finish it. 

 

Book Summary: 

Roxane Gay talks about her struggles with her weight, and her experience with eating disorders. 

After an incident of r*pe from someone she loved and trusted, she turned to food for comfort. She wanted to be in a ‘bigger’ body, in order to keep herself safe, and to try and stop people from looking at her. She ate and she ate, until everyone around her was worried about her size. 

She dropped out of college, and disappeared for a while, wanting to get away from her parent’s disappointment. She gave her body to many people, men and women, because she felt she didn’t deserve to be treated nicely. She wanted to lose weight, but she would lose weight, and then become nervous because of the attention, and then would put it all back on again. She wasn’t happy with how she looked, and tried many diets. For a few years or so, she would often would eat as much as she could and vomit it back up. Slowly, she was learning how much she was damaging her body, and she was starting to try and change her mentality and find herself worthy of love. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Racism and Violence

kimveach's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

What a fantastic book.  The author's reflections on her own body and life are personal, yet so many of the thoughts could be what any of us think.  While I'm not a huge fan of personal essays or memoirs, this one touched me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

aaliya87's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Rape

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

Some memoirs just feel like info dumps about the author but this, Roxane Gay was able to weave a thread throughout that continued to tie together the whole memoir. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

maggieparedesauthor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

leahlovesloslibros's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.0

Roxane Gay spares none of the hard details in this raw, uncensored memoir about her struggles with her body. After a traumatic event during adolescence, Gay strives to put herself back together using food as a coping mechanism. What starts out as a way to regain control becomes somewhat of an addiction to eating. Throughout the course of the memoir, the author discusses how the food issues affected her, and how, despite many attempts, she can't seem to break herself out of its vicious cycle. 

This is not an easy story to read. Many difficult issues are brought to light. The topic is hard, but Roxane Gay tells it in a powerful way. That being said, I don't regret a minute of reading it; in fact, I will be actively seeking out copies of her other books to read as well. I highly recommend this read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, and Medical content

Minor: Violence

sydney_keeps_reading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Medical trauma