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A review by starkov
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
This book was entirely character-driven, so if that’s not your cup of tea then don’t even bother with this book. No plot just vibes.
It is basically a deep-dive into the thoughts of Lydia, 23, who just put her mother in a nursing home and left on her own for the first time. Oh, and Lydia and her mother are both vampires. The vampirism felt like a big metaphor for both eating disorders and the general feeling of never belonging anywhere, and was constantly referred to as “the demon”. But despite Lyd being a vampire, the book was very relatable to me as a fellow 23 year old woman living on her own, and I’d imagine it’d be even more relatable to women of colour, especially those with mixed heritage like Lyd.
Meanwhile, I’ll remain looking the same; my face will give no clue to the kind of person I am. ‘That man looks kind,’ people will say when they see Ben’s face when he is old. When the same people see me, they’ll see nothing.
This quote was about Lyd staying forever young due to being a vampire, but it is also a parallel to what regular women go through in their lives. Men are allowed to visibly age. Women are not.
”You’re a woman. You shouldn’t describe yourself as a girl if you are an adult woman.”
“Oh, right. Sorry,” I say. I have been called a girl by some men before and felt diminutive - shrunken down, patronised. But I’ve never been told off for calling myself a girl. It feels strange, like the person is saying that I contain both someone who is sexist and someone else who is a victim of sexism. Now, I think for the first time about what I see myself as. I don’t exactly see myself as a woman yet.
I liked this quote a lot because it really summarised how confusing and weird it can be to navigate the world on your own for the first time. When do you make the switch from calling yourself a girl to calling yourself a woman? Lyd is just beginning to try to figure her life out, she still doesn’t feel like a proper adult. Like a grown woman. Women have their lives together, right?
There are also a lot of examples of the involuntary sexualisation of women who are just trying to exist. How casually it just happens to us, and how we often try explain it away as a defence mechanism.
I don’t really know how to comprehend what has just happened. It’s unclear to me whether he did anything wrong exactly. Had I made him aware that I could see him, and told him that he was making me uncomfortable, perhaps he would have apologised and left.
So, despite this book barely having any plot, I really enjoyed it. The writing was very beautiful, I really enjoyed the narration of it and the ending felt satisfying. It was a really cool twist on the vampire-genre and a brilliant coming-of-age story.
It is basically a deep-dive into the thoughts of Lydia, 23, who just put her mother in a nursing home and left on her own for the first time. Oh, and Lydia and her mother are both vampires. The vampirism felt like a big metaphor for both eating disorders and the general feeling of never belonging anywhere, and was constantly referred to as “the demon”. But despite Lyd being a vampire, the book was very relatable to me as a fellow 23 year old woman living on her own, and I’d imagine it’d be even more relatable to women of colour, especially those with mixed heritage like Lyd.
Meanwhile, I’ll remain looking the same; my face will give no clue to the kind of person I am. ‘That man looks kind,’ people will say when they see Ben’s face when he is old. When the same people see me, they’ll see nothing.
This quote was about Lyd staying forever young due to being a vampire, but it is also a parallel to what regular women go through in their lives. Men are allowed to visibly age. Women are not.
”You’re a woman. You shouldn’t describe yourself as a girl if you are an adult woman.”
“Oh, right. Sorry,” I say. I have been called a girl by some men before and felt diminutive - shrunken down, patronised. But I’ve never been told off for calling myself a girl. It feels strange, like the person is saying that I contain both someone who is sexist and someone else who is a victim of sexism. Now, I think for the first time about what I see myself as. I don’t exactly see myself as a woman yet.
I liked this quote a lot because it really summarised how confusing and weird it can be to navigate the world on your own for the first time. When do you make the switch from calling yourself a girl to calling yourself a woman? Lyd is just beginning to try to figure her life out, she still doesn’t feel like a proper adult. Like a grown woman. Women have their lives together, right?
There are also a lot of examples of the involuntary sexualisation of women who are just trying to exist. How casually it just happens to us, and how we often try explain it away as a defence mechanism.
I don’t really know how to comprehend what has just happened. It’s unclear to me whether he did anything wrong exactly. Had I made him aware that I could see him, and told him that he was making me uncomfortable, perhaps he would have apologised and left.
So, despite this book barely having any plot, I really enjoyed it. The writing was very beautiful, I really enjoyed the narration of it and the ending felt satisfying. It was a really cool twist on the vampire-genre and a brilliant coming-of-age story.