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Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan

70 reviews

folklorisms's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

i’ll be straight up i didn’t like this book for like 30% of it but then something changed and i went full 180. tbh i thought this was going to be a commentary on a woman being violently obsessed with an awful guy but it turned into a commentary on the complexities of human nature and self-worth. like what in the actual. and there were so many banger lines that blew my mind so much that i kind of had to sit with it for a second. anyways sorry megan nolan my bad 
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leeshahhh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.25

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indielee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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ayanahazeley's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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archieballs's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

if you want to know what not to do in a relationship, maybe this book is for you. Additionally, maybe I don't hate the writing but I do not like this woman. Maybe that's why it got the score that it did. 
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woodiefrog's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Sad-girl core like Sally Rooney’s books, but with even less to say about what’s behind the desperation whole generation(s; always there are some, but particularly in the west after 2nd wave of feminist movement) of white women gravitate towards.

Is it “raw and honest”? We who did not live the lives nor knew what went behind the keyboard tapping or even diary keeping, who are we to judge? Personally I am perpetually fascinated by my drive to understand the seeking of degradation and erotified romance/sexually suffering, the history both personal and social that caused it. At once I am also slightly unmoored by the seemingly rise of popularity (or perhaps, undiminished? There’s Girl, Interrupted long ago after all) of this type of fiction, straddling along the literary and genre in terms of audience, with main characters in their early 20s always white and women and in desperate need of therapy but instead the fiction leads us to see them “transform” through romance, upswing or down to hell. 

I think someone on Goodreads mentioned pejoratively Fleabag in starting this “trend.” While I understand the sentiment, I think Fleabag is an examination of this genre, this “aesthetic.” Fleabag does no more seek her suffering than hoping against memories and her past (which is still very much alive in her necessities to be around her family). A lot of central conflicts within the characters arises and revolves around Fleabag’s relationship with women, rather than with men. But as this book demonstrates, “at a glance” is all it matters to a great deal of audience at times. Not all experience warrants any meaningful explanation or links to the larger experience beyond one’s own victimhood.
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gabriellegoldenhour's review against another edition

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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

2.75

I recently found out that a new favorite genre of mine is “delulu females”, I thought this would be another but really it just gave me haunting reflections of my past. Not everything was the same, obviously, but feelings and scenarios of my youth in similar situations mirrored this unnamed narrator. I feel like when I started really liking the book it fell off and just stayed flat for me. 
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cecereads__'s review against another edition

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4.25

Intense is the first word that comes to mind to describe this book. It’s hauntingly confronting and matter-of-fact almost in its portrayal of a toxic relationship. How obsessive, toxic, desperate and altering an experience the main character goes through.
I think it’s very well done how we get insights on her past and way of reasoning with herself. Especially, there’s a scene near the end of the book that I will be haunted by for a while.
- I found it difficult to rate this tbh, but my rating is based on the story-telling and brutal honesty of it rather than the connection to the characters (not that they have to be likeable), if that makes sense
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ninahuynh's review against another edition

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Desperately tried to find the will to continue on; no longer spark any joy from this book.
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ola_oreiba's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

I should’ve know from the name but I could never imagine for the life of me that someone could be so desperate. It was so jarring to read and I’ve never been this verbally furious at a protagonist before.

Reading Acts of Desperation felt like someone with ADHD that has to sit though someone telling them a bad story ever so slowly, it triggers all their senses and turns into pure rage. 

At times, I really wanted to sympathize with her and there were a couple of paragraphs and moments/thoughts towards the end that I vaguely agreed with but it couldn’t justify the prolonged and continued suffering for nothing. 

It annoyed me how the story was chaotic but predictable at the same time although I cannot fault the writing stylistically. It’s just the whole idea of the book is just pushing how desperate someone can be and how deep into desperation they can go and I think in that sense Megan Nolan is a completionist. Nobody can be more desperate.
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