Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

21 reviews

nialiversuch's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

rinku's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

 I still struggle with writing reviews for books I love, and it’s the same with Real Life. Something about this book resonated deeply with me and while I often find contemporary literature kinda boring, I was here eager to read every page of this book. 

Real Life only takes place at one weekend but shows how significant such a short period can have in one’s life. The greatest strength of this book is that everything just feels so real: the university setting, the characters, their constellations, and emotions. 

The university environment was so interesting to see, and I liked the focus on biochemistry – one of those research fields that always intrigued me. The dynamic of this place was interesting to see as well and shocking/sad when looking at the unfair way Wallace was treated. He is everyone’s punching bag there and has to suffer all those microaggressions.  

Coming to the characters, they were described so vividly that they also felt like real people, especially Wallace’s friends. Everyone had their own struggles and the relationships they had to each other felt realistic as well. 

Wallace as the main character is obviously the best written character of this novel. He as well felt like a real person with his own interests and an amazing depiction of this emotions. His life is so depressing, and it truly feels that he has no one in this world. I probably couldn’t have read this book at a better point in time, because many things Wallace was reflecting on – his job and if he’s even enjoying it, what it means to have friends and what it means when you try to please everybody – were things I was thinking about as well. 

Of course, this book dominantly reflects on other aspects, like what it means to be queer or how it feels to be black when everyone around you is white. Again, it’s so well described that you can feel every little emotion Wallace feels as well. My only critique are probably the long chapters that seem to be common in contemporary books, but I never like them. Nevertheless, Real Life is an amazing character study. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

seawarrior's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Real Life is a heavy, honest coming of age story that focuses on graduate student Wallace, as he realizes the depths of his discontent over the course of a weekend. Wallace is the only Black graduate student in his program, an alienating experience which is made worse by acts of sabotage, statements of thinly veiled racism, and silence from his white peers. Taylor pulls no punches while describing how Wallace feels, and unravels why he is compelled to either placate or push away those he calls his friends as the story goes on. This book contains effective but visceral descriptions of trauma and how it pecks its way into people and slumbers within them, poisoning them quietly for a spell before squawking loudly for attention. If you are triggered by descriptions of sexual assault, especially against minors, this is not a book I would ever recommend to you. Yet I never felt like Taylor exploited Wallace's history of surviving assault to elicit shock or pity from the reader. Instead we are led to understand, similarly to Wallace, that his history cannot be escaped, and that his flee to academia has piled on new violations hidden under politeness and guilty apologies while exacerbating his poor self-esteem. Taylor makes it impossible not to empathize with Wallace, and I desperately wished for him to find safety and happiness somewhere in his world. The ending of the book was disappointing to me because Wallace's life did not improve, but I don't regret having read it. Taylor's prose is striking and glittering with insight, so I would still highly recommend this book to those who can stomach the subject matter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

suncreems's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, and Sexual content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Violence, Vomit, and Grief

shreyshrey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Nails a really specific feeling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

jen_again's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Pedophilia

Minor: Animal death and Body shaming

biblizo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

oliverlang's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense 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

3.0

I'm not sure what I expected from this book to begin with but as it went on I found myself compelled to read more in the hopes that the resolutions I wanted from it would come to fruition.

There's a lot of friend group drama going on throughout this book with a lot of dark/serious themes. 

I feel like I wanted this book to be more than it was. It had the opportunity to provide strong character development and show a bisexual identity and it just didn't give me that. 

Although the book only documents the events over one weekend, the ending felt unfinished and the final chapter came out of the blue with a flash back to the friends meeting for the first time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

mikkiarose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Body shaming and Death of parent

abswoods's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, and Medical content