Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh

24 reviews

emory's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

2.25

When I was reading the second story in this collection and the protagonist started thinking about sexual acts involving swimming in sewage, and then further details the acts this character performs on a young sex worker, I was going to stop reading, despite my aversion to not finishing books. I wish I had. 

I was puzzled reading this about all the positive reviews I had seen of it. Every story seemed a pointless excuse for Moshfegh to describe something disgusting, insult a random fat side character, and call somebody r*tarded. A few of the later stories, such as Slumming, The Beach Boy, and A Better Place were (comparatively) charming and driven, but the abrupt endings in the latter of these two were discouraging.

The only saving grace I could find for these stories was that Moshfegh is clearly creative in thinking of vignettes of different shades of upsetting people. However, I don't feel as if her writing was strong enough to carry them. Each sentence was short and blunt. The simple sentences lent themselves to the subject matter I suppose, but it was not an artful or particularly nice reading experience. It read more like the begrudging English assignment of a super senior than that of a critically acclaimed author. Not to mention none of her characters were distinguishable from one another. All spoke with the same voice. The most discription anything received were fat characters that Moshfegh seemed to delight in calling disgusting and horrible. And anytime someone from a minority was mentioned, there was some weird aside that the narrator needed to have.

The idea of challenging what the purpose of fiction is and the role of a main character is an intriguing prospect, and this, along with the few stories that stood out to me as genuine, are the reason I'm giving this a higher rating than 0 or 1. But there's no skill or point behind it, to me, other than to shock and disgust. Most of these stories had nothing to say. To make something realistic in its unappetizing circumstances means nothing when you're doing the same trick over and over again. "It's so bad here, what if there were something better? Well, there's not." Cool! 

And unfortunately there's not even a single story that's about aliens. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, and Fire/Fire injury

Unbelievably terrible descriptions of fat people throughout for no reason. Additionally any time a main character meets a person who is not white or straight, they are very weird about it.

ericj32's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

1.25

Overall, the writing is simple, blunt, and erratic - kind of degrading to read.  Lots of sad, sloppy, angry people looking for sex or some kind of warped version of happiness (usually just sex, though).  Nothing really enjoyable or interesting about this for me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Sexual harassment

weaverca's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I've been in such a reading slump this summer, but since I'm always looking to find a good beach read, I thought I would give this a try since it's an anthology of short stories and figured those would keep me occupied better than a full-length novel. Unfortunately, a lot of them were very hit or miss for me. I loved Bettering Myself, The Beach Boy, and Nothing Ever Happens Here, but other than that I wasn't terribly impressed with the rest. Whether it was the overt usage of slurs and other distasteful language, the way the characters seemed repetitive which made the stories fall flat, or the abrupt and unclear endings, it seems there were a handful of reasons why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped. In the end, I only gave this book three stars, as I do have to give Ottessa credit for her writing style which paints an adequate mental image in terms of the setting and characters, keeping the reader interested.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Drug use, and Racism

Moderate: Fatphobia and Misogyny

Minor: Self harm, Sexual content, and Murder

reginahafner_'s review against another edition

dark funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Body shaming

zoemenon's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Drug use and Sexual content

jillybooks's review against another edition

dark funny reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Moshfegh writes with such a distinctive, witty voice that makes each story gripping. Her humor and messiness of her characters were the clear highlights of the book. However, her characters’ “messiness” does not excuse the blatant ableism, racism, homophobia, and overuse of slurs shoved into every story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

shlbee's review against another edition

dark tense 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

3.75

I love unlovable characters, and would have loved this so much more without Moshfegh’s weird and in the words of Roxanne Gay “bizarre and increasingly annoying preoccupation with fat and detailed descriptions of fatness”. Still, Moshfegh knows how to put the worst of us on a page and leave you begging for more. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

althebookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual content

pclairx's review against another edition

dark medium-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

2.0

At this point, after reading multiple works, I am a little weary of the repetitive fatphobia and ableism (lots of r-slurs used) that occurs throughout Moshfegh's works, often not adding to the story in a meaningful way. The stories in this book were pretty redundant between each other and other works. Having unlikable characters can be interesting and dynamic, but this just made me feel gross, so not my cup of tea.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Drug abuse, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use

rredreece's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Really liked this- i generally like short stories and Moshfegh’s writing style is really cool! There was only one story i didnt like, but one thing i didnt like over the whole book is a strange fixation on the description of fat people? it’s like they were used to make the stories sound more grotesque or something because almost every story has a overly “gross” depiction of a fat person

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Moderate: Misogyny