Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Fome: uma autobiografia do (meu) corpo by Roxane Gay

286 reviews

xabbeylongx's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

2.0

SPOILERS AHEAD
Book Review: 
This is my second attempt at reading Gay’s memoir, and I finally finished it, this time. There are quite a lot of trigger warnings, so if you’re likely to become affected, this book isn’t for you. 
I don’t like to criticise memoir’s, as I don’t think it’s right; someone has poured their heart out, and if you’re talking about the content the memoir, it can get really personal. So, I’m going to start off by saying that I really liked this book because it was so personal, and Gay bared all by writing it. It has a lot of content that others would maybe try and hide, as she did for all those years, but I really like how she now tells us about it. Her character growth is insane, and I love reading about it. 
Second of all, I’d like to say this book is so thorough, so in depth, and it’s nice to read a memoir so realistic. I, too, struggle with my weight, and it’s so incredibly refreshing to read about someone with similar-ish struggles to me. It’s validating! Reading about everything that has happened to her, every personal hell she’s had to deal with… I mean, there is a lot I cannot comment on or even begin to understand. However, with regards to the weight prejudice and the eating disorder, I really like how it’s not sugar-coated, and I liked reading it from someone else’s POV. 
I’d say that, personally for me, some of the writing itself was a bit repetitive. I liked the small chapters that were put in, but sometimes, they weren’t necessary. A lot of the time I was reading over it, and I was thinking that I had already read it, but it was actually a different part. It also had a bit of a mismatched order, in my opinion, but I am a stickler for chronological memoirs, so that’s just my preference. It was quite a good read though, even if I found it did take me a while to finish it. 
 
Book Summary: 
Roxane Gay talks about her struggles with her weight, and her experience with eating disorders. 
After an incident of r*pe from someone she loved and trusted, she turned to food for comfort. She wanted to be in a ‘bigger’ body, in order to keep herself safe, and to try and stop people from looking at her. She ate and she ate, until everyone around her was worried about her size. 
She dropped out of college, and disappeared for a while, wanting to get away from her parent’s disappointment. She gave her body to many people, men and women, because she felt she didn’t deserve to be treated nicely. She wanted to lose weight, but she would lose weight, and then become nervous because of the attention, and then would put it all back on again. She wasn’t happy with how she looked, and tried many diets. For a few years or so, she would often would eat as much as she could and vomit it back up. Slowly, she was learning how much she was damaging her body, and she was starting to try and change her mentality and find herself worthy of love. 
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its_the_lauraxx's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

Vulnerable, vivid, and just plain honest. She has more courage than I'll probably ever need. I want to read her other writing now for sure.
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naomiwinograd's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

This was a tough book to get through. I almost cried several times, and i’m not a very emotional person. This book deserves no less than 5 stars because of how perfectly it depicted her story and how necessary it was to be told. It’s brave for anyone to tell their story, because it’s terrifying. (I don’t need to elaborate, read the book) But it gives other women hope. It honestly changed my whole perspective. I’ve always been on her side with these sorts of things but she made me not only realize WHY i fight for these things but also made me passionate about them. As someone with a BMI under 30 i never really understood fat phobia to a great extent. Maybe I never will. But she really helped me get closer and i think any book that does that is a good one. Highly recommend. 
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kgrace315's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

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kendylgrbac's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

Roxane Gay dares to expose herself in a way many of us wouldn’t dream of doing. It hurt to hear her story, but her words were so fluid and her thoughts explosive. I really enjoyed it. 
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kourtjohnstone's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad

4.75

What a powerful message about one's relationship with their body. Heartbreaking and raw. This memoir takes courage and bravery on Roxane's behalf and I applaud her for that. The audiobook narration is a great experience as she narrates it herself, which I cannot imagine how difficult that must have been. This story allows me to give those who struggle with their weight grace because I hadn't considered many of these situations before and in that I recognize my ignorance. I would recommend this for readers who have loved ones who struggle with obesity because it is eye-opening and incredibly introspective. Check trigger warnings before though!
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finnthehuman217's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

5.0

The way Dr. Gay talks about her trauma with so much vulnerability is something I could never do! I feel like this spoke to me as a fat trans woman. My body is already objectified by society and because I’m fat i have another reason to be shamed by society because once we get down to it, being fat is considered “unhealthy” and Dr. Gay talks about how she became fat to make herself unattractive and take her control back from the people who hurt her is so important. This was a great book!
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space_gandalf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

2.5

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loveclairebearx's review against another edition

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4.0

The short chapters and ranging topics gave the impression of reading a series of essays, but Gay often returned to topics throughout the memoir. While I found this structural choice somewhat repetitious, her stories were powerful, emotionally charged, and insightful. 

This has opened my eyes to my own subconscious prejudices to be unlearned. Thank you for writing this, Roxane. 
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angelicalomax's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

Raw and unapologetic. It was a bit repetitive but I believe that was a stylistic choice. 
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