Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

14 reviews

mariacirillo's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.0

At first I thought this book was just giving me a weird vibe because it was written in 2003 and aged poorly. Then I read Shriver’s political leanings and her crude, ineffectual portrayal of the nuance of nature vs nurture made much more sense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Eating disorder and Fatphobia

annierosebel's review against another edition

4.0

The writing was at times a bit challenging, it felt stuffy and thick.

It's interesting, though. I found it kind of pacey. It's also interest to consider the narrator and the validity and accuracy of her portrayals. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Eating disorder

quinn24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

Lionel Shriver can write so well I just wish her bigoted beliefs weren’t consistently clawing their way onto the page completely unnecessarily.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Genocide, Vomit, and Classism

fernash's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Medical trauma

lindsayvale's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

hysrae's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

madelinequinne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

Well this certainly cemented the fact that I don’t ever want kids. Kevin continuously made me so angry throughout this novel, and the absolute heartbreak i felt at the end when we find out he murdered his little sister too, that just absolutely broke me. This is such a difficult book at times because of how awful the topic is, but overall I would just describe this book as sad. It’s incredibly well written, and this is the most emotion i’ve ever felt after reading a book to date, so brb, gonna go cry 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

phantomgecko's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

Character wise, everyone sucks in this book.

Franklin sucks in general, but in regards to a child, he sucked hardcore. A great way to ruin your marriage is to put your kids first. And like, yeah postpartum depression and even postpartum psychosis make Eva a little rough, but dang dude. He didn't need to gaslight her like that. If you legit take the word of your child over your spouse, you're proving the trust in your relationship isn't there. And if you don't trust each other, what is the point?

Is Eva an unreliable narrator? Probably? Should she have had kids? With her motivations, probably not. Did she try her damnedest? Looks like it. Should she have gotten her entire family counseling? Yeah, baby! She also should have stood up for herself more? But these things aren't what makes her suck. It's the stuck up, hypocritical attitude that Kevin rightly points out. (This side of her doesn't come out super often throughout, so she sucks the least.)

And obviously Kevin sucks because that's the point of the book.

There's a lot of philosophizing and social commentary and introspection in this book. Like it's 66% that. Interesting monologue, but it does make everything drag so

Also don't think the nasty mess with the drama teacher was necessary. It was overtly obscene. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

caitmal's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I found the author’s writing style very hard to get into. She seemed to use 10 words to say something when 3 would share the message equally as well. The characters were all terrible and such clique’s of different people in a trauma situation. None of the characters had any flexibility to their personality. The last 30 pages were the only ones I read quickly. The rest dragged on. I’ve seen some reviews talk about how the author is highlighting nature vs nurture which seems ridiculous as neither view are highlighted in an effective way at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings

Minor: Ableism, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

triangular_pascal's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

2.75

Extremely uncomfortable to read -then again, perhaps that's the point, to confront that which makes us uneasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Classism