Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez

34 reviews

bjdarby's review

inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexism, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Infidelity

ricksilva's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

Futbolera Camila Hassan has to hide her participation in the sport from her family, despite her father's futbol obsession, and her brother's potential as a possible pro player. With her family unable to look past the traditional gender roles in their Argentine barrio, Camila must practice in secret, and cover up her participation in the sport with elaborate lies.

Complicating things is the return of Diego, her teenage crush who found success as a pro player for one of the top teams in Italy.

Steeped in the details of daily life in the barrio, and shining with a love of the "Beautiful Game", this story did a nice job of transcending the standard sports narrative, to present a tale of hope is a setting where girls routinely suffer from denial of opportunities, abuse, and murder. In her identity as Furia, Camila embraces the call for freedom and justice that so many of her peers have been denied.

I loved the attention to detail in the setting, and the complex character backgrounds that set up the story, and the main character's self-confidence was a great distinguishing feature.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Sexism

Minor: Murder

amberinpieces's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Cursing, Medical content, Homophobia, Rape, Abortion, Blood, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Alcohol, Child abuse, Lesbophobia, Murder, Death, Grief, and Racism

oriana095's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Murder

fkshg8465's review against another edition

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'd say this is closer to a 2.5. It was just boring. It tackled some feminist themes that are important and should be talked about, especially with the younger generations, but I'd have to stay engaged long enough to do it first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Minor: Sexual assault

leahkarge's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Sexism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, and Medical content

Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy

30before30's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book and maybe it’s because I played soccer for 18 years…but it brought me joy to hear about another woman’s journey to achieving her goals. The plot is very engaging, the characters (for the most part) are lovable, and it addresses very serious issues of violence against women. There were only a few issues I noted with some inconsistencies with the plot but it was overshadowed with the other facets of the novel! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Domestic abuse, and Sexism

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I picked this up to finish one of my 2022 reading challenges. Sports stories aren't necessarily my jam otherwise. Yamile does an excellent job representing Camila's sports aspirations and how those clash with mysogeny in the culture around her, as well as her developing romance. Content warnings for mysogeny, abusive father, and murdered or missing girls. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual assault

Missing or murdered girls

beautifulpaxielreads's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Lies have short legs.

What a big-hearted roar of a novel this is.

In Furia, Yamile Saied Méndez skilfully and explosively explores the intersection between misogyny and football (soccer as we know it in Australia, fútbol in Spanish) that exists in Argentina.

On the pitch playing for her women's team, Camila is the fearless, brilliant "La Furia". Off the pitch, however, life is a bit more complicated. As well as the very real threat she faces just by walking home after dark, she has to deal with her overbearing, bullying father, her kind but cynical mother, and her elder brother Pablo, whose career in the professional men's league feels like a shadow she can't escape from under.

Then there's Diego, her childhood sweetheart - who has returned home for a visit after a dazzling career and international fame at the Juventus club in Italy.  Now that he's back, he wants to pick up where he and Camila left off - but does she feel the same?

I'll confess that at first, I had a hard time getting into this one. There are a lot of Spanish words and phrases sprinkled throughout Furia, and I constantly felt the need to go and look up anything I didn't understand. But after a while, I let this urge go (mostly) and my reading experience was so much better for it.

I learned so much from reading this book. Firstly, I had no idea how multicultural Argentina was - Camila herself is of mixed Palestinian, Spanish, and Eastern European heritage (much like the author herself), and other characters are of Chinese and Indian ethnicity - and there are probably others which I don't remember. And the sense of place you get - as well as the Spanish language intermixing that I already mentioned - is really well done.

I had heard that gender-based violence (and murder) is a huge problem across Latin America (as it is in many other parts of the world), and it is in depicting this issue (and the attitudes enabling it) that Saied Méndez really excels. From casual misogyny to systemic, from domestic violence to

Spoiler

the murder of a young girl

, it's all here - and I appreciate that the author didn't shy away from the topic but confronted it head-on.

Diego was a sweetheart, and the way Saied Méndez writes him, it is easy to see why Camila

Spoiler

falls for him all over again

. He's effortlessly charming, down-to-earth, and caring. I was thinking that maybe he was a little too perfect, but towards the end of the novel, when

Spoiler

he revealed that he had come back to take Camila back with him to Italy

made him a bit more realistic to me.

Furia is a novel that wears its heart on the sleeve of a  fútbol jersey - and that's a good thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Physical abuse, Child death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual violence, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Minor: Lesbophobia

This book deals with heavy topics such as femicide and violence against women and in some scenes graphically. There is one strong scene of domestic violence where

Spoiler

a teenager is hit with a belt

and another where a young girl

Spoiler

goes missing and is later found dead

.

carolined314's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A hard book to read; so much trauma packed into such a young girl's life. Also a tale of hope and strength, just be careful.
 Content warnings: murder, misogyny, domestic abuse, fatphobia, racism, animal abuse, sexual harassment

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Domestic abuse, and Sexism

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Fatphobia