Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Hambre by Roxane Gay

19 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

naomiwinograd's review against another edition

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

5.0

This was a tough book to get through. I almost cried several times, and i’m not a very emotional person. This book deserves no less than 5 stars because of how perfectly it depicted her story and how necessary it was to be told. It’s brave for anyone to tell their story, because it’s terrifying. (I don’t need to elaborate, read the book) But it gives other women hope. It honestly changed my whole perspective. I’ve always been on her side with these sorts of things but she made me not only realize WHY i fight for these things but also made me passionate about them. As someone with a BMI under 30 i never really understood fat phobia to a great extent. Maybe I never will. But she really helped me get closer and i think any book that does that is a good one. Highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

elliv's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Vomit and Injury/Injury detail

carolineberry12's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This book tackles 2 things that rock women's worlds: violence from men and their own bodies. I felt like she was letting me walk with her through it, never touching, just being near each other. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

c100's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

naemy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

pjwanders's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

shazel64's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

januaryapril's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

A great book, such difficult subject matter but Roxane Gay does an amazing job at telling her story. I felt so connected to her and so aware the whole time I was reading. Made me very aware of my body and confronted many of the same thoughts I have about what it feels like to exist and move in this world. Also made me more aware of how others may feel. Why have we come to a point where we all have to be so obsessed with our bodies and how do we escape this?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria

maemick's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence