Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Prendila così by Joan Didion

8 reviews

murrderdith's review against another edition

reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

There is an exquisite, stark bleakness to Didion’s writing. Now having her fiction to compare it to, I think I prefer her non-fiction work as her style has a journalistic quality that doesn’t always feel right for a novel. I think she captures the lie undergirding mid-20th-century American prosperity--that the material bounty of post-war America belies an existential crisis. A realization that all of that is empty.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Abortion

andreazadro's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Eating disorder

Minor: Rape

lizawood's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Abortion, and Mental illness

Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, and Suicide

amyrezende's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Eating disorder, Addiction, and Emotional abuse

rin_dawg's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Abortion, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

laurabarrett's review against another edition

dark sad 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Sexism

kristinadegreef's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

sketchybooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This is an interesting one, because while it's a well written book that I couldn't put down... overall, the movie was better.

The movie has its issues. It tries to tell the story in a similar way to the book and becomes a bit of a jumbled mess at times because of that, but. The character BZ is combined with another character who was pretty pointless in the book... but when combined with BZ gave that character much more depth and a more interesting relationship with Maria. In the movie, their friendship is what mattered most to me, and made the ending that much more intense. In the book, they barely knew each other, and I had trouble making any connection. Which, I'm aware, may have been the point, but I prefer the point in the movie personally.

It also helps that 1) Anthony Perkins gave an extremely arresting performance as BZ (which says something interesting about collaborative storytelling and even representation, since Perkins' life experiences definitely seem relevant) and 2) the movie only has one character use the f slur (that I remember?) and he's a terrible person, unlike the book where our protagonist says it constantly.

The author did help write the screenplay, so as a writer myself I'm curious if these changes were made more for story purposes or merely for adaptation purposes. Personally, I'm very glad for the changes, even though the book itself also has its strengths over the movie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Suicide, Homophobia, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Eating disorder

This follows a woman's experience with an abortion in the 1970's, and includes a lot of potentially triggering moments surrounding that.