Maria Storhaug-Meyer

An incredibly important book, no matter your size.

Revisado: 12-01-22

Filled with both science and individual people's experiences, this book taught me a lot. It's heartbreaking to hear about the everyday experiences fat persons have to deal with, but at the same time, Gordon manages to show that this us something we all can fight, to make a better world for us all, no matter our size and abilities.

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Absolutely beautiful!

Revisado: 07-05-20

This story is more than a story, it's poetry! So beautifully written, and unlike anything I ever read before. Everything is vowen together perfectly, and I love the characters. The narrators also do a very good job.

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Beautiful and real

Revisado: 02-17-20

It's a very genuine depiction of mental illness. I never had a eating disorder, so I can't say for sure about that part, but there were still so many things that were recognisable, so I would guess that the eating disorder part is genuine too. I think this book is great for people who deals or have dealt with mental illness of some sort, because it feels nice when you see that someone really understands, when most people don't. But I also think it's great for everyone else too, whether they know someone with a mental illness or not, because it can help them understand more about this really important issue, get a glimpse of the logic behind the irrationality, and hopefully help fight the stigma that mentally ill people have to deal with. And it's just written so beautifully! It doesn't have lots of unnecessary twists and turns that may be exciting for some people and triggering for others. Which is so nice, cause there's more than enough of books, shows and movies that make serious and horrible issues into sexy entertainment. This book express es something real, and digs deep down into it without all that. Of course it's impossible to know exactly what might trigger some people, but I would think this is a safe book for most people. This is a book the world needs. I loved it!

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The author steps in his own snare

Revisado: 01-07-20

I struggled to finish this. Actually, I gave up, so others will have to decide for themselves whether or not my rating is justified. The book is about how strangers are anything but easy to understand, and that we are basically doomed to misunderstand each other. Our default position is to think the best about others, and that's the premise for a well functioning society. Well enough. But when he starts out claiming that it's perfectly understandable that Neville Chamberlaine thought the best of Hitler, and later claims it's equally understandable that the police officer thought the worst of Sandra Bland, it was hard to see the logic to his reasoning. Enough was enough for me after the chapter about Jerry Sanduski, Larry Nassar and Brock Turner, where Gladwell claims that it's not only excusable, but for the best (!) that adults ignore signs of sexual abuse of children (because otherwise no one would want to be a coach), and that it's an impossible task for a drunk college student to not rape another drunk college student. Talking in depth about our default of trusting each other, he has oddly little trust in the victims of different forms of violence. It's quite possible I misunderstood the message of this book (I'm willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt), but seeing as miscommunication is the central theme, and the author discuss some very serious issues, he should have been a bit more clear.

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Interesting story with a good potential, but..

Revisado: 01-05-20

I'm conflicted about how to review this book. The story jumps between 38 year old Molly's life in San Diego and 14 year old Molly's life in Morrison Ridge, North Carolina. In the present time part, Molly and her husband is waiting to adopt a child, but the adoption brings up some painful memories from her past; memories she won't talk to anyone about, not even her husband. Back in 1990, Molly is torn between rioting and making her father happy, in a summer that turned her life upside down.

The beginning sets you up for a sinister plot, and I kept waiting and waiting for the buildup to the big twist, but instead the experience was more like ripples in a stream that just tipped over the edge in the end. When you finally find out what happened that summer, it's too hasted and a bit of an anticlimax. In my opinion it doesn't fit with how the characters are portrayed in the rest of the book, leaving them and their actions with little credibility. The way Molly's family handles _the_ happening the summer of 1990 seems odd compared to how they handle everything else, and Molly's reaction doesn't fit with the way her family is described. There could be a lot of things happening in the background here, that would make her reactions more credible, but if so, it should have been explored more. Similarly, at the end of the book, adult Molly, seemingly open-minded until this point, all of a sudden seems childish and self-centered. Having kept the same convictions for 24 years, her evolvement at the end happen very quickly.

BUT there were many things I liked about this book too. Several of the characters are complex and very interesting, and I wanted to learn more about them all through the book. I only wish the author had used a bit more space to go deeper into at least some of them, Amaleah and Molly's father in particular. The main themes were also very interesting, and a lot was very new to me. Lastly, the narrator does a good job of bringing everything to life.

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Exceptional!

Revisado: 07-14-19

I read this because I loved "Little Fires Everywhere" by the same author, and this was just as good. Celeste Ng is my new favourite author!

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Breathtaking

Revisado: 07-07-19

I could hardly tear myself away. I'm amazed by the way Ng manages to make all the characters so real and whole. There are no easy truths, no black and white, no clichés. The whole book is colours and nuances. You'll fall in love with some of the characters, and feel sympathy even with the ones you hate. It's poetic and philosophical, yet immediate and simple. I loved it. A new favourite.

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Beautiful on the struggle for acceptance

Revisado: 04-15-19

This is a thought-provoking and critical, brutal and honest, horrible and absolutely beautiful story about three very different people who, for very different reasons, go to Iraq to fight a holy war. Three young people who are invisible each in their own way, struggling for acceptance in the midst of conflicting ideals, discrimination and prejudice, hypocricy, betrayal and love. Each trying to find their way to freedom and integrity. Western cultures like to think they "own" the ideals of integrity and freedom, and their definition, but this novel shows that the strive for integrity and freedom is universal and that it can be sought for/found in what might seem like the most unlikely places, all depending on your situation. A lot of literture and movies on war is very graphic, sometimes social-pornographic. This is NOT the case here, still it portrays the brutality of it very well.

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