Reviews with content warning for Racism - Off the Record

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Off the Record by Camryn Garrett

22 reviews

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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booksawyer's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? No

5.0

Off The Record is Camryn Garrett’s sophomore novel, which captivated me from the first chapter. The story follows Josie, a black, plus size teen who aspires to be a journalist. Her talent leads her to win a prestigious writing contest, and her prize is the opportunity to write a profile on an up-and-coming movie star for her favorite magazine.

As Josie starts her journey, she also discovers the horrific, yet unspoken, issue of sexual abuse in Hollywood. When faced with these injustices, Josie is asked to write a piece exposing a serial abuser in the industry, putting her journalism career at risk as it is just beginning.

Off The Record is the kind of book you will never get bored of reading. There are so many things going on in the story: the profile, the sexual abuse story, a romance, complicated family relationships, body insecurity, discussions of race, and more. This story is rich with details and conflict, and I felt truly captivated the whole time.

As a plus size reviewer, I loved seeing a book about a plus size heroine that was evenly balanced between conversations of her size and her just living her life. Yes, Josie deals with her own insecurity and faces scrutiny from others, but she is also given a fully-fleshed out story where she has talents and struggles that are beyond her size.

This book contains so much great representation, and not just for plus size individuals and survivors of SA. There is so much BIPOC representation and two major characters (including the MC) are bisexual. It is so amazing to see a book with such a diverse set of characters!

I didn’t expect this book to have a romance, but I was pleasantly surprised that it did! Honestly, the romance was one of my favorite elements of the story. The chemistry between the couple made me swoon and I couldn’t contain my anticipation for them to finally get to together!

I really can’t say enough good things about Off The Record. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

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allymsm215's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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sfomera's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense 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

5.0

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asiantomato's review against another edition

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4.25

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christina26's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring 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

3.25

Not a fan of the rushed ending.

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aus10england's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

First half: two stars
Second half: three stars

This was quite the whirlwind of the story, some aspects that I like included the diversity, the mental health rep, the behind the scenes look of journalism, and the well written banter between characters.

Some things that didn’t work for me was the pacing, I felt that even though we were going on a multi city adventure, it all kind of blurred together.

Also the story arch of

the main character not getting into college was all but wrapped up in like a paragraph which was kind of confusing.

Could totally see a huge number of people loving this story, just wasn’t for me unfortunately.

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brassnbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

do not appreciate this books comparison of anxiety to homophobia in the being sent away line.

the fact that josie doesnt believe what happened to her was assault is extremely important because a lot of survivors and such in general tend to think that what happened to them wasnt as bad as what happened to others.

its interesting when they introduce julia morrison and how everyone thought she was a crazy person very similar to britney spears and how a lot of people i grew up with were told she was just crazy.

i like how the book brings up separating artists from their work because i truly do not think you can do that because how they are and what they do is often in their work when theyre movie directors or writers etc etc. and i truly think trying to separate them is a cop out excuse to enjoy things you ised to mostly because of nostalgia.

theres difference between cheating which is shitty and being full on racist anti semitic rapist pedo etc etc.

i also absolutely hate how the main character says shell never have "good hair", being grown i know she meant straight hair but black hair IS good hair and that teed me off.

its like yeah ive felt down about some of those things as a kid cuz other people made me feel down about them and the line was supposed to be relatable which im sure it is/was but dang i got mad.

pennys line about waiting to see how they are when they arent nice is so important because thats when true colors start showing, anyone can pretend to be nice its not hard.

chapter 33 just rubs me wrong, i just dont like the josie marius side story like thats not what i picked the book for also the "ill just get crushed" joke is old and tiring its like when people tell buff women to step on them its gross.

next chapter was interesting how they made marius one of the victims and they touched on biphobia when marius said people would think he wanted it since he was bi.

josie and savannahs interaction when she gets the random calls is also annoying like how tf are you going to groan and push her when her life is practically being threatened

It was overall a semi good read but I feel like the two stories clashed more than fully went together

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lena_loves_reading's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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rebeccafarren's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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