Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

En mand der hedder Ove by Fredrik Backman

28 reviews

anastashamarie's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-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

☕ Never mind me, just casually sobbing over here. 

🐈 I had a long wait to get this one from the library, but honestly, I'm just going to go buy it (and probably the rest of Backman's bibliography) because this book hit me in a way nothing has since I was a teenager reading John Green. 

🏘️ This is an existentialist masterpiece. The writing is so simple yet so impactful. The characterizations of the whole cast are so well-rounded. It's heartbreaking and uplifting and just generally just so human. It's full of love and sorrow and so much hope. One of those stories that I think is going to stick with me forever. 

🖍️ Now, if you'll excuse me while I go back to crying my eyes out. We can talk more about it later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, and Death of parent

romeroreads's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted sad

• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, Dementia, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Homophobia, Misogyny, Car accident, and Death of parent

lozbug's review against another edition

• 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

my_a's review against another edition

Simplistic, characters and the narrative are absolute 1-dimensional caricatures. The trope of miserable old man being nasty to everybody and his Ray of sunshine wife is an old weathered trope. I tried so hard to get through it as everyone seems to love it but I just couldn't. There was often many things said that were offensive and insensitive about women, people who are overweight, pregnant people, that made me uncomfortable

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Misogyny

kt2e56's review against another edition

funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

I was hoping this would be a five star book for me based on reviews I’ve read but alas, it’s only a 3. I was really enjoying it at first but it started to become very repetitive and quite frankly, Ove kinda sucks. He has some good qualities! He’s saved lives! He does eventually help his neighbors! But he comes across less like a grumpy old badger who just is lonely and more like an outright bigot. He’s super misogynistic (and never really changes that). He’s racist (and never really changes that). He lets a gay man stay with him after he’s been kicked out of his home which is lovely! But he refers to him as (I’m presuming based off of Pervana’s reaction to the phrase) a slur 80% of the time. And I think the most annoying is that he is (but also quite frankly the author is too) WILDLY fatphobic. Like disgustingly so. And Backman himself also seems SUPER fatphobic as he can’t write about Jimmy at all without calling him a slob, talking about whether or not his clothes fit, constantly making him pester everyone about food, etc. It’s gross. I do like the overall message and there are moments that are sweet here but even in flashbacks to life with his beloved wife, Sonja, I can’t help but wonder why she stayed with a man who belittled her pretty frequently and also was just so nasty to others. His hatred of bureaucrats makes sense! His racism, sexism, and other casual bigotry really does not. None of that factors into his backstory and I feel like it’s odd that the author made certain qualities of Ove so repugnant when he could have just been a crotchety old man and loner who thinks everyone else is incompetent. The story would have been just as impactful. It all ties itself up by the end with a neat little bow but there are portions of this that are genuinely draining to get through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Dementia, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

booknerdsinmn's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, and Car accident

bridgetkay's review against another edition

Did not finish. Could not finish. I got more enjoyment reading the 1-star reviews for this book. 

The character is problematic as all hell and I really have no interest in a story centred on a white man who’s surrounded by people who aren’t white men as supporting characters to some kind of redemption arc. Any time I attempted to read this, it put me in a bad mood. So for self care purposes, I will not be finishing this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

bookchatwithbeth's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death and Car accident

Minor: Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Dementia, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

abominablesnowaro's review against another edition

funny hopeful sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

madelinedalton's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Maybe I’m heartless, but this book unfortunately did not emotionally wreck me like I hoped it would. Don’t get me wrong, it was very sweet, but all I did was think “aww, that’s nice” instead of bawling my eyes out like other readers. 

I think the book was just a bit too slow-paced throughout for my taste, and because of that, I found it hard to stay engaged. 

I also found Ove’s (and, let’s face it, the author’s) comments about women and fat people to be pretty offensive at times. The reader would have still found Ove to be just as curmudgeonly if he hadn’t been so misogynistic and fatphobic. Ove is homophobic and xenophobic too. These comments were much more connected to the story, but they could’ve been handled more delicately or even omitted entirely. 

Finally, I found Ove’s age to be very odd. His character would have made more sense to me if he were 70 rather than 59. My own father is 60, and it just felt weird to read about a grumpy curmudgeon who was a year younger than my dad when I don’t view my dad that way at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Medical content