kellyung's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Death of parent
charlieeeeeeee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Emotionally draining and vicious in a way that’s completely necessary. Awad’s simplistic words are cutting and sharp, they stab at you like little knives of uncomfortable truths. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl is simultaneously both a delicate character study and a brutally realistic examination of the way society treats women and girls, something only Mona Awad could do in just thirteen vignettes that make up a 214-paged debut. Each slice of Lizzie’s life hits you like a punch, always inevitable in its haunting bluntness and always in a place unexpectedly vulnerable. Lizzie’s voice is muffled, drowning in constant obsessions of her physical self and that of others she idealizes and/or loathes. Not only that, but her endless attempts at perforating beauty consume her, as does her incessant need for validation. Though perhaps not a “likable” character, never is Lizzie not chillingly relatable. Awad’s debut is a portrayal of reality that growls and bites and snaps at you with its plethoric teeth so accurately that it constantly penetrates skin and draws blood, but never too much to allow you to become forgetful of its power.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Misogyny, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Emotional abuse
asbat's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I’m not sure what to take away from this book. It has left me slightly disturbed. There is no character development just eternal misery.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia and Body shaming
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Eating disorder, and Mental illness
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
marplellous's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
i needed to bump the rating up from 4 to 5 stars because i couldn’t stop thinking about it.
while it is presented as a collection of short stories, it is actually snippets from the live of one character, the titular “fat girl”, her descent into diet culture and disordered eating, and the shallow praise she receives for being “rehabilitated”. most of the short stories are from her perspective, but two outstanding ones i remember a fews months later are from the perspective of men who either sleep with the fat girl as an “easy lay” or have to deal with the orthorexic woman she became.
the characterisation in this book is outstanding, and i still have to think about it because it makes me constantly angry. it illuminates how femininity and the search for womanhood is so often connected to shrinking oneself, to petty competition (imagined or real) with other women, to only defining oneself by calories, clothes, beauty. it is a challenging read and surely not suitable for everyone, but it resonated heavily with me.
what you can’t expect from this book is a cathartic ending, which makes it only more memorable in my opinion. the last story deals with the petty arguments the titular “fat girl”, now thin and addicted to working out, has with her neighbor over the usage of gym equipment. in one scene, a fire breaks out in their apartment complex and they both find each other evacuating, when their gaze falls out of the windows, onto the gym, where another woman is working out tirelessly, despite the blaring sirens around her. here, awad phrases something akin to “and we were on the cusp of a realization”, but then the moment passes.
this book is frustrating, tauting, disgusting, vile, and yet, in its glaring ugliness one of the most efficient takedowns of diet culture i have ever seen.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Death of parent and Adult/minor relationship
bookishbrittany's review
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, and Racism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Death of parent
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