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A review by perfect_leaves
The Romance Diet by Destiny Allison
5.0
Gist: Would recommend
First Reaction: The title includes the word "diet" but this book is about so much more than that. It's about the many layers of personhood.
Second Reaction: THIS BOOK NEEDS A BIG FAT FLAMING TRIGGER WARNING STICKER FOR ANYONE WHO HAS SUFFERED SEXUAL VIOLENCE.
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I received a copy for review from Destiny Allison herself, and I am so incredible grateful.
Around 60% mark (I read the kindle version of the book), I decided I wanted to give the book 4 stars, but I read this book in a day, which is highly unusual for me, even for a short novel. I found myself entranced by the story, recognizing the sentiment. No, I'm not married. No, a medical issue didn't force me to leave a successful welding career. No, I did not start a business. I have, however, lived my twenty years on this Earth as a female-bodied person, and the themes in Allison's novel seem central to our personhood. Too often we are reduced to objects; our worth depends on our looks and our utility to male-bodied people. We begin to see ourselves in this fashion, even as we real against the unfairness. We learn to quiet our opinions, to make small adjustments to ourselves to accommodate the male personalities on our lives. This is, obviously, a gross generalization, but I've lived it long enough and seen it in enough of my friends to know there's some weight to it. Speaking of weight-- emotional baggage aside, the weight loss method in this book is pretty solid. It's not a how-to, which is what makes the advice so good. You lose weight by living a more active and emotionally healthy live.
A note on the sexual violence- I almost didn't finish the novel. The chapters near the end had me quivering. I've been reading a lot of female narratives lately, and every single one of them has included sexual violence in some form. At what point does the violence stop being novel and start being a problem? The book's I've been reading date back to the 1960s, yet female-bodied people are still going through the same things today. We scream, we fight, we go ignored. I, for one, plan on redoubling my efforts to prevent more women from falling victim.
This book is most likely something I'm going to keep in my library. It's not super uplifting, but it's empowering, and comes with the message that we can overcome even our worst nightmares (cliche, I know, but true).
First Reaction: The title includes the word "diet" but this book is about so much more than that. It's about the many layers of personhood.
Second Reaction: THIS BOOK NEEDS A BIG FAT FLAMING TRIGGER WARNING STICKER FOR ANYONE WHO HAS SUFFERED SEXUAL VIOLENCE.
---
I received a copy for review from Destiny Allison herself, and I am so incredible grateful.
Around 60% mark (I read the kindle version of the book), I decided I wanted to give the book 4 stars, but I read this book in a day, which is highly unusual for me, even for a short novel. I found myself entranced by the story, recognizing the sentiment. No, I'm not married. No, a medical issue didn't force me to leave a successful welding career. No, I did not start a business. I have, however, lived my twenty years on this Earth as a female-bodied person, and the themes in Allison's novel seem central to our personhood. Too often we are reduced to objects; our worth depends on our looks and our utility to male-bodied people. We begin to see ourselves in this fashion, even as we real against the unfairness. We learn to quiet our opinions, to make small adjustments to ourselves to accommodate the male personalities on our lives. This is, obviously, a gross generalization, but I've lived it long enough and seen it in enough of my friends to know there's some weight to it. Speaking of weight-- emotional baggage aside, the weight loss method in this book is pretty solid. It's not a how-to, which is what makes the advice so good. You lose weight by living a more active and emotionally healthy live.
A note on the sexual violence- I almost didn't finish the novel. The chapters near the end had me quivering. I've been reading a lot of female narratives lately, and every single one of them has included sexual violence in some form. At what point does the violence stop being novel and start being a problem? The book's I've been reading date back to the 1960s, yet female-bodied people are still going through the same things today. We scream, we fight, we go ignored. I, for one, plan on redoubling my efforts to prevent more women from falling victim.
This book is most likely something I'm going to keep in my library. It's not super uplifting, but it's empowering, and comes with the message that we can overcome even our worst nightmares (cliche, I know, but true).