Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Cozy Classics: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

9 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

It is my current opinion that Emily Brontë was the best writer amongst her sisters, which is a shame given she has the smallest corpus. 

That said, I liked Charlotte's Jane Eyre better than Anne's Agnes Grey. Jane is an endearing character, one who is far more flexible in her morality and ambiguous in her actions (though not too much so, I assume, to make her unsympathetic to contemporary readers, which is kind of a shame to me as a modern reader, but I digress). Mr. Rochester is a fucking piece of work, and I do hate him, but I totally understand why Jane wants to fuck him. I'm weirdly charmed by St. John Rivers as well, but he's also an asshole, and why are all these men trying to manipulate my girl Jane? On a somewhat related note, it's so funny that Jane's ugly appearance comes up CONSTANTLY. And that Jane's Aunt Mrs. Reed has beef with her. Like, she's ten. 

I'm fascinated by Bertha Mason and the idea of a dude having a crazy wife he keeps in the attic, so I will be reading Wide Sargasso Sea. I also think Jane's life would've been better if she'd decided to be a lesbian spinster with the Rivers sisters. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Racism, Xenophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Racial slurs, Suicide, Alcohol, and Colonisation

-Ableism abound of both the mental and physical varieties -Missionary work portrayed as a good thing

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

realizedcreation's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

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

2.5

Would have been higher but for the anti-semitism and racism

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Antisemitism

condor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful slow-paced

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

3.5

It does keep you in your toes with some plot twists but also got me frustrated many times when the characters act completely illogically. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

bearystarry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

Despite the … views of the time, I guess, and the fact that between the entire cast of characters there were about three redeeming qualities, I enjoyed listening to this book. The first two thirds were the most interesting and the last third sort of lagged for me but in general I guess I was just interested in the way Jane told her story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Incest, Terminal illness, and Alcohol

edesia_guest's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I studied this for Uni and it is brilliant, the plot is heavy but amazing to analyse. But Bertha, or Antoinette, is ignored. To take Spivak’s criticism this book is an allegory of colonisation and it is sad that her story is ignored and erased under Jane and Rochester’s love. While we need to understand the time the author wrote in, this criticism still remains when modern readers view this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, and Death of parent

mondovertigo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Suicide, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

mme_carton's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Antisemitism, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

josefinceh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

3.5

This is the book that made me realise that gothic stories might not be my thing...

Jane Eyre follows the titular character through a large portion of her young life as she travels from one abusive household to the next. An orphan and left in an abusive home, Jane grows a strong will and sense of independence, rarely buckling from her own thoughts and will. What makes her stand out from other women in this era is that Jane travels like a man of her time. Majority of the time when she moves it is on her own accord and by her own means. 

Like what you might expect from a book by one of the Brontë sisters, this one is packed with abuse and dark themes. However, this one is definitely one of the lighter stories. So if you've been curious about Brontë and this literary era, this iconic book might be a good place to start. 

My main dislike and discomfort of the story comes from the relationship between Mr. Rochester and Jane. The dynamic of the relationship made me incredibly uncomfortable due to its abusive nature.

Jane is blinded by her affection for Mr. Rochester in a way that I could never completely comprehend. As he harms and lies to her, ending each action with a declaration that his affection for Jane should be obvious, still not denying that he might hurt her again. Perhaps there is a comparison to real life abusive relationships that can be seen here.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Fire/Fire injury