Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

21 reviews

vintovka's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

So, the thing you need to understand about IIHYF is it's painfully short. I doubt it has more than 70k words, while having five main characters and four p.o.v.'s. So. Yeah.

The book got surprising amount of events and things happening on its pages, but not a lot of character development.  Most of it is ambigiously left off screen. Did Ara realise something about the nature of parasocial relationship and consumption? Does Wonna have a chance of actually being a good mother in the future, or will her trauma ruin any of her children? Will Miho get over her friend's suicide, and what will it do to her? Will Seunjin regret going down the route of debt and prostitution? I don't know. I can only guess. Which kind of leaves me wondering what even was the point. 

I love reading about the good, the bad and the ugly of different female experiences, so I was excited for this book. It gave of vibes of kind of an antithesis to girls' fairy tales and female wish-fullfillment fantasies. It's not _not_ that, but because it's not anything at all. I got attached to the characters and their lives, but the ending left me stumped. What did the book want to say? What was the point of me reading all that?

The book's redeeming qualities are being short and having good, flowing prose, but in the end, IIHYF is a snapshot of how it sucks to be a poor south korean woman, and it doesn't have anything more than that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Death of parent

brikai's review against another edition

too many main characters, hard to keep up

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Sexism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Ableism

jinnvamp's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Eating disorder

runawry's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Trafficking, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

laceyc1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Medical content, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Eating disorder

outersgrace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Death, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Death of parent

luluzza's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexual content

shanominom's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I was looking for a book with complex female characters to sink my teeth into, and thankfully I found this one! I loved the tense, melancholy atmosphere, which, I felt, accurately depicted the constraints and challenges of being a woman in South Korea's patriarchal society. The characters were multi-faceted with unique back stories, and I liked Cha's decisions to keep specifics unknown/ambiguous!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

danajoy's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Medical content, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Eating disorder, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

andreiaoh's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

Well, that ending was underwhelming.

I'm not saying books need to have a point but I really could not grasp the point of this book? Like, it was interesting (sort of) to read the lives of different women and how they intersected with one another but nothing really happened, there was not much character development if any, it was all just a bit glum.

2.5 because there was something intriguing about the book but I came out of it a little confused about how I felt about it. I didn't love it, didn't like it, but also didn't dislike it either??

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

Minor: Eating disorder and Abortion