gsroney's review against another edition
4.0
Important and honest memoir about the experience of Roxane Gay dealing with past trauma and her lived experience of being obese in a society that judges and moralizes it.
“As a woman, as a fat woman, I am not supposed to take up space. And yet, as a feminist, I am encouraged to believe I can take up space. I live in a contradictory space where I should try to take up space but not too much of it, and not in the wrong way, where the wrong way is any way where my body is concerned.”
“As a woman, as a fat woman, I am not supposed to take up space. And yet, as a feminist, I am encouraged to believe I can take up space. I live in a contradictory space where I should try to take up space but not too much of it, and not in the wrong way, where the wrong way is any way where my body is concerned.”
leasummer's review against another edition
4.0
This is a very powerful book. It’s a very intimate memoir. I would recommend it for any woman.
jeannamarie's review against another edition
5.0
Wow.
“People see bodies like mine and make their assumptions. They think they know the why of my body. They do not. This is not a story of triumph, but this is a story that demand to be told and deserves to be heard.”
Roxane Gay. Wow. Gay conveys such an honest account of her relationship with her body and makes you contemplate one’s own relationship with their body and how body image in our society is such a screwed up ideal. The overall game of comparison and how people inherently judge each other with no empathy, compassion and understanding for one another.
I took my time with this book and read a little bit day-by-day and was happy I did so. This really allowed me to savor all of her words - to ponder all the meaning she had to say.
Highly recommend this book to anyone.
“People see bodies like mine and make their assumptions. They think they know the why of my body. They do not. This is not a story of triumph, but this is a story that demand to be told and deserves to be heard.”
Roxane Gay. Wow. Gay conveys such an honest account of her relationship with her body and makes you contemplate one’s own relationship with their body and how body image in our society is such a screwed up ideal. The overall game of comparison and how people inherently judge each other with no empathy, compassion and understanding for one another.
I took my time with this book and read a little bit day-by-day and was happy I did so. This really allowed me to savor all of her words - to ponder all the meaning she had to say.
Highly recommend this book to anyone.
thecolourblue's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
One of those books that really deserves the hype. So so raw, very heavy, very emotional. Pretty brutal. Very very very honest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Fatphobia
awilderm23's review against another edition
4.0
the past is written on my body
that’s a powerful thing, knowing you can reveal yourself to someone
my body is a cage but this is my cage and there are moments where i take pride in it
that’s a powerful thing, knowing you can reveal yourself to someone
my body is a cage but this is my cage and there are moments where i take pride in it
anuaggarwal's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
nataliedc's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
A reflective memoir centered around the author's exhausting existence with an "unruly body" following a gang-rape attack she fell victim to at just 12 years old. This was a poingant memoir that discusses important themes of Blackness, fatness, queerness and the way these identities intersect with one another. While there were quite a few repetitive chapters (in which the author repeats the same criticisms of herself and our weight-obsessed society over and over in different ways) and I didn't feel each part of the book had enough distinctions to warrant such separations in the story, I ultimately was extremely engaged with and moved by this memoir and hope to read more of Gay's works in the future.