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Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
44 reviews
starr27's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Car accident
cambion's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Violence, and War
basil_touche's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I think this is a rare case of the adaptation being better than the original book. I had seen the TV series before reading this and I'm honestly surprised at how much the show made up considering how long this book is. My biggest issue with this book is that the entire middle part was tedious, mainly focusing on the Them, Anathema, Newt and Shadwell for 120 pages, yet for all these characters it felt like nothing of note was really happening. I was bored and just wanting the narrative to switch back to Crowley and Aziraphale (the latter stuck reading a book for those 120 pages, doing nothing else, just reading and having the narration describing it)
I could forgive it slightly if it was actually funny, but I found myself barely smiling at any jokes. Like this is well written in terms of sentence structure and I would occassionaly, absentmindly go "Oh that's kinda clever", but after a while it became tortuous to read through so much unhumorous descriptions with way, way too many characters. Many of whom are only there for a page or two and take away from the main cast. Even most of the main cast I didn't care for (I can see why the show focused more on Aziraphale and Crowley as they are the best characters who really work well off each other). The show added way more things that were actually interesting to the themes (Heaven and Hell having way more of a presence, Aziraphale and Crowley being shown through the ages - it's honestly shocking how little time they interact in the book compared to everyone else) that the book just feels so hollow in comparison.
Another thing that caught me off guard was the amount of racism, misogyny, ableism, fatphobia and homophobia (I was aware of the infamous scene where Aziraphale is called the f slur by a child but not everything else) that is scattered throughout. The parts where it pops up made an already tedious reading experience into an aggravating one. It's strange, I've read a bunch of Pratchett's work and I don't recall coming across anything this bad (I don't know about Gaiman's work and frankly with what's been happening reccently I don't want to buy his books to check).
This is the closest I've ever DNF a book and it came close several times. I've rated this slightly higher due to the ending, which stops trying to crack as many unfunny jokes to actually talk about the themes & characters in a way that makes you reflect. Where was that the rest of the book??
Again, you're better off watching the show and save yourself the trouble.
I could forgive it slightly if it was actually funny, but I found myself barely smiling at any jokes. Like this is well written in terms of sentence structure and I would occassionaly, absentmindly go "Oh that's kinda clever", but after a while it became tortuous to read through so much unhumorous descriptions with way, way too many characters. Many of whom are only there for a page or two and take away from the main cast. Even most of the main cast I didn't care for (I can see why the show focused more on Aziraphale and Crowley as they are the best characters who really work well off each other). The show added way more things that were actually interesting to the themes (Heaven and Hell having way more of a presence, Aziraphale and Crowley being shown through the ages - it's honestly shocking how little time they interact in the book compared to everyone else) that the book just feels so hollow in comparison.
Another thing that caught me off guard was the amount of racism, misogyny, ableism, fatphobia and homophobia (I was aware of the infamous scene where Aziraphale is called the f slur by a child but not everything else) that is scattered throughout. The parts where it pops up made an already tedious reading experience into an aggravating one. It's strange, I've read a bunch of Pratchett's work and I don't recall coming across anything this bad (I don't know about Gaiman's work and frankly with what's been happening reccently I don't want to buy his books to check).
This is the closest I've ever DNF a book and it came close several times. I've rated this slightly higher due to the ending, which stops trying to crack as many unfunny jokes to actually talk about the themes & characters in a way that makes you reflect. Where was that the rest of the book??
Again, you're better off watching the show and save yourself the trouble.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, and War
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Car accident, and Alcohol
michayla13's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I finally picked this book back up after DNFing it a few years back. I almost never leave reviews, my only exception is when I don’t like a book, and this was definitely one of those times. I feel like your book doesn’t really work when the whole premise is based on satirizing religion and tries to make fun of people who use their religious views for bigotry when at the same time your book is filled with non-satirical bigotry. The casual racism in this book was pretty shocking since I’ve really only heard rave reviews for it. I think that this is one of those times when people are blinded by their love for the story. I didn’t like the way the women were written, as soon as their male love interests came into the picture, they lost all previous personality. And the scene comparing terrorists to freedom fighters didn’t really come as a surprise seeing as Neil Gaiman is a Zionist.
On a less serious note, one of my bookish pet peeves is phonetically spelling out dialogue to show a character’s accent - and that happened constantly. We get it, this character has an accent. You don’t need to stunt the dialogue by making everything impossible to read.
I hope that I forget this book soon, it wasn’t worth the time and effort.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Islamophobia, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and War
teajay_'s review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Death, Eating disorder, and Kidnapping
gayforscience's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder
Minor: Racism
pam_simpson06's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Moderate: Cursing and Racial slurs
katiewhocanread's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury
the_cheerful_necromancer's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
Ported over from my Goodreads:
It'd be hard to choose, but I think this is my favourite book, ever. Gloriously irreverent, packed full of jokes and humour, endlessly quotable, and able to make some quite profound points about life and philosophy when it has the time around the edges.
It'd be hard to choose, but I think this is my favourite book, ever. Gloriously irreverent, packed full of jokes and humour, endlessly quotable, and able to make some quite profound points about life and philosophy when it has the time around the edges.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Eating disorder
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and War
Minor: Fatphobia
There is a GRAPHIC depiction of a person suffering an eating disorder. It's meant to be upsetting to make a point, but still, proceed with caution. Most of the humour still holds up, but some hasn't aged well, including several homophobic or racist remarks. Not usually outright cruel, but certainly dodgy nowadays.mckiheather's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Reading after watching the series (great adaptation), this was a great book. Still loved the characters, and I liked how the book explored more of the pieces of the story and you can see it all kind of fall together.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and War