Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

9 reviews

itsjadenbaby's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

This was really fun! Of course it’s historical fiction and we will never really know what exactly Zelda experienced, but I love her. I identify closely with her struggles and loved walking through her whole life with her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Sexism, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Classism, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

mezzano's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Mental illness, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, and Sexism

chasingpages1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death, Grief, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: War, Abandonment, Blood, Excrement, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Infertility, Cancer, Dysphoria, and Racism

hayley_mariep's review against another edition

emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Violence, Misogyny, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Violence, War, Abortion, Chronic illness, Death, Cursing, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt

piperclover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

I went into this thinking I would hate it but I came out of it recommending it to everyone. It's a character and relationship study more than anything else so there's no gripping plot and instead you're just listening to the chronological story of her marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald  As if Zelda was telling it as a story to say a grandchild. From a story perspective, Zelda as a character is so interesting and I really loved her and by the end I hated Scott so desperately.  Zelda is so self aware and she questions her own motives and justifications in the context of the 1920s and 30's which is just a really interesting look at women in the time period. 


So interesting, the narrator is fantastic, and even though there's no real plot, I was still enjoying every chapter because the writing style is so easy to sink into. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Medical content, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Sexism, Abortion, and Addiction

Minor: Sexual assault

The alcoholism, cheating, and medical content are basically the entire last half of the book. I think by our standards we would say that Scott was abusive and manipulative but I don't think that in the time period he would have been labeled of that so I'm not sure if it's fair to put that warning in the tags?

hunkydory's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Death, Pregnancy, Abortion, and Suicide

bklassen's review

dark reflective sad medium-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

3.0

I find it hard to write a review about a book that ended with me closing said book, placing it on the table, and firmly declaring "Well that sucked!"

To clarify, the writing didn't suck. What sucked was the seemingly codependent, toxic relationship Scott and Zelda had. It seems a lot of people are either "Team Zelda" or "Team Scott", declaring that she either ruined Scott or he ruined her.

I think I'm firmly in "Team Neither". I think they both had young, idealistic ideas of what love and life was like, and I think Zelda let herself be carried off by a promising, handsome, young man who showed a lot of red flags from my perspective. Zelda was also a rebel, impatient, headstrong, and had a lot of growing up to do before she married Scott, but there you go.

Scott, in turn, was childish, needy, obsessive, insecure, and so up his own ass about his own importance and "art" that he effectively drove himself to alcoholism and ruin. He was such a spoiled egotist that I don't know if there'd be anyone who could've saved him but himself. He was manipulative, philandering, and a complete lush, and while I can respect his writing ability, I certainly lost a good deal of respect for his person after reading this (I also knew nothing about his life beforehand, so there you go).

of course, it is important to remember that this is a fictional book based on Zelda's life and her own writings/letters with people. We're getting Zelda's side of the story. Read A Moveable Feast or a biography about Scott and get a completely different story. The problem is that none of these people (Ernest, Scott, Zelda), in my mind, were trustworthy or reliable narrators. Ernest Hemingway was a sexist, misogynistic, racist, and self-important asshole, and usually a biographer is going to write favorably about the subject they chose to exhaustively research and write about. So you'll just have to take the writer's word for it, I suppose. From Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, I do feel sorry for Zelda, especially since she just wanted to leave and take their daughter, but couldn't because she'd have no money (and couldn't make any as a woman at the time) and Scott refused to let their daughter go with her - he held onto her as a hostage, if you will. Scott also would have won any custody suits because he was a man back then, when men won everything.

What also sucked was the treatment of women back in the day, particularly doctors and husbands. It is so damn frustrating to read Hemingway's comments about how a woman was supposed to be meek and modest and not too loud, or the patronizing doctors preventing Zelda from writing because Scott told them "it makes her feel worse and spiral more" because he'd be jealous of her being a writer, too.

Therese Anne Fowler did a pretty good job of getting Zelda's voice down (not that I've read any of her letters), especially her frustrating love for Scott despite everything and her inability to just up and leave him, but I suppose that's life for you. People and relationships are complicated, and that's that. This is a work of fiction, so I know it's based on Zelda's life but it's not a biography, so anything I read from this should be taken with a grain of salt. Scott and Ernest seemed well captured, but Zelda's friends and family seemed like afterthoughts and I had a hard time remembering who Sara, Second Sara, and Tootsie were.

I think it's important to get the real sense of life since not everything can be rose-colored glasses, but I just feel down after reading about this. Love story, this is not. If anything, it taught me not to marry a self-important author and especially not to go back in time and live in a past era where women were considered to be lesser, but we all know that already, don't we? 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Sexism

ginadapooh's review

informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

taynicole2698's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.0

I never thought the words “Scott, dear, you’re a b*tch” would appear in my annotations. It’s so sad, so infuriating, and so enthralling. The author did a wonderful job. This was a cery difficult read emotionally. I doubt that I would ever reread this book, but I enjoyed it. My biggest critique would be the heavy repetition, but I do think that it serves a purpose by allowing the reader to have a glimpse at just how exhausted Zelda must have been. This being said, I did feel that the middle dragged and the ending rushed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide